Scenarios That Lead to Babies
by FreudianBasement
Summary: This is twisted, but I really want to see more stories where Marinette gets pregnant. It can be assumed that each chapter takes place in a fresh universe. Some chapters may start the same but end differently.
1. Slave Society

"What a pain," the rich boy groaned. "I never asked for this kid. All I wanted was a little fun, and my slave had to go and get pregnant. Now my father expects me to take responsibility for the child."

Beside him his personal slave ducked her head in shame, resting a protective hand on her swollen abdomen.

"I know you're not really enjoying this, but I'm actually jealous of you," Adrien admitted. "I've imagined for quite a while what it would be like to have a female slave. She'd be mine, someone whose job it is to love me, and I'd be free to make her have my baby as proof she belongs to me. Maybe I should start looking at the girls for sale at market," he said dreamily.

At the other end of the table, his friend Chloe was forming an idea. Adrien's 16th birthday was coming up, and she had an idea what she could give him.

\--

"Happy birthday, Adrikinz!" Chloe ran toward their meeting place in the park, cruelly tugging on the rope lead in her hand. A hooded slave stumbled after her, her hands bound together in front of her and attached to the other end of the lead. The rear of their procession was brought up by Sabrina, who though a slave herself, showed no mercy to her peer, prodding her forward every time she stumbled.

"What is this?" Adrien asked, appraising what he could see of the bound girl curiously.

"Your birthday present!" Chloe proclamed. "You've heard of her before, her name is Marinette. She was born to two of my Daddy's slaves, and he gave her to me when we were both 7. I'm afraid she's no good as a domestic servant - far too belligerent - but I've heard that guys actually like the spirited ones for sex. If you'd prefer, just let me know and I'll give you a more submissive one instead, but I think you'll quite enjoy teaching her to respect you."

"Wow, thanks, Chloe." Adrien took the lead from Chloe and gently guided Marinette to kneel beside him and his other slave, Nino.

Nino could hear the new girl crying quietly to herself. She was scared, he knew, any slave would be when getting a new master. He wanted to whisper to her that it was okay, Adrien was a lot kinder than Chloe, and that he never abused his slaves, but something made him feel unsure. Up until that moment, he'd been Adrien's only slave, and that in name only. Adrien always treated Nino as more of a best friend than anything. Still, he feared things could be different for Marinette on account of her gender. His master had specifically been wanting a female slave, and would likely use her for what he wanted whether she liked it or not. See, Adrien wasn't antislavery, he'd never given it much thought. After all, he'd been born into a society where slavery was considered normal. Sure, he considered himself fortunate to have been born into nobility, and recognized that life typically wasn't fair for the commoners or for the slaves, but that was the way it had to be. It was a slave's duty to follow every command and be profitable to his master. Without the slave's sacrifice, the economy would fall apart, or so Adrien had been taught. The point being, he was under no moral compulsion to be nice to his slaves, he was simply the sort of guy that didn't derive pleasure from causing other people pain. However, his upbringing had instilled in him a certain sense of entitlement. Marinette was there to serve him, and he would make sure she obeyed.

\--

"Come on, Princess, we need to get home," Adrien pleaded with his birthday present. Marinette had been quiet and complacent during the rest of his party, but once Adrien tried to take her home with him, they only got about a block away from the park before her obstinacy he'd heard so much about kicked in. Marinette had sat herself down in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Nino, would you go into town and buy us the usual groceries?" Adrien asked. "When you finish, take them straight home."

"Sure thing, Dude!" Nino nodded and headed off, the only thing insuring his return being a mutual trust between him and Adrien. Groceries at home were getting low, but they could have lasted. The real reason Nino was sent away was so Adrien could focus on forming a basic trust with his new toy.

"It's okay, you won't be abused by Chloe anymore," Adrien said, squatting down next to her. "She's always been nice to me, but I know she's capable of being awful with her slaves. Well, I'm not like that. I want to be friends with all of my slaves, but you still have to obey me."

Adrien removed the hood from Marinette's head, seeing her face for the first time. He let out a small gasp. "You're beautiful! Has anyone ever told you that before?"

Marinette looked up at him for the first time, and he realized she wouldn't be able to answer. Chloe'd had the girl gagged as well. He picked free the knot in the cloth behind her head. The moment it fell to the ground, Marinette spat out the wad stuffed into her mouth. "There, isn't that better?" he asked.

"Thank you, Master," she mumbled.

"About that..." Adrien scratched the back of his head. "I'm not too fond of that title. It's too impersonal. You will call me 'Master' in public, and in front of my parents, but when we're alone, or if Nino is the only other person there, you will call me by my name."

Marinette was shocked, she'd never heard of a member of the noble class making such a request of a slave. In fact, it was customary for a slave to be severely punished if they showed their master that little respect. Even Marinette, on her constant quest to bring down Chloe's ego, hadn't dared to call her by name in several years. Now, her new master was outright requesting that she call him 'Adrien'. That explained why he'd allowed his male slave to get away with calling him 'Dude' without so much as a swat to the wrist. She was still afraid of the things Adrien would make her do, but she was beginning to realize she could have gotten it a lot worse. "Thank you, Adrien."

\--

"Adrien, what is this?"

"Chloe gave her to me! Her name is Marinette!"

"I suppose you're at the age where you would be wanting a female."

"Yes, father. I have for awhile now. I was considering buying one myself, but then Chloe found out what I wanted and she gave me this one!"

"Very well, just don't let her distract you too much. If I see a decline in your performance, you'll have to get rid of her."

"Yes, father."

Marinette shuddered at the thought. As scared as she was of her new role, she wanted even less to be 'gotten rid of'. That most likely meant being taken to market and shipped off somewhere miserable where she'd never see nor hear from her family again. The Agreste family were at least friends with the Bourgeois, who still owned her parents, so it seemed hopefull she would at least get to see them now and again if she stayed.

Adrien noticed her discomfort and chuckled. "Don't worry, you're not going anywhere. This is home." In sync with his last sentence, he pushed open his bedroom door. It was huge, even Chloe's bedroom didn't look like this. Marinette was dumbfounded.

"Let's get rid of this," Adrien untied the rope around Marinette's wrists. "You've earned a little bit of freedom. If you behave, you can earn more, but for now, I don't want you leaving this room. Chloe's told me you're no good with domestic chores, but I want to judge for myself, so let's clean up in here a bit."

Marinette was sure the 'us' in 'let's' meant her, but to her surprise, Adrien got right down beside her and started tidying up some of his things. "You do chores yourself when you have slaves?" she asked.

"If I help too it will be done faster," Adrien shrugged, "and the sooner we can get to having fun."

Marinette gulped, she was scared of finding out what was Adrien's version of fun.

\--

"Awe man, you beat me again!" Nino tossed down his controller in mock rage. Adrien laughed. Marinette had never seen a slave and master interact like this before. "I'm not playing again," he declared.

Adrien turned to Marinette, who was sitting at his other side on the long couch. "Have you ever played?"

"U-uh, well, not the n-newest game," Marinette stuttered. "I actually lost all game privileges after I beat Chloe at Ultimate Mecha Strike II."

"So you're good?"

Marinette smirked, "better than that..." she cut herself off. She'd started to feel more comfortable with Adrien since she realized she was the one who was thinking dirty and that his idea of 'having fun' was video games, but she still wasn't sure how he would react to her calling Chloe names. "We had a tournament in Ultimate Mecha Strike II, winner plays Chloe. I won the tournament, and I knew I was supposed to throw the final game to Chloe, but I didn't. I've been banned from video games ever since."

"Here," Adrien handed Marinette the controller that Nino had thrown down. "Chloe's not a very good sport, I won't get mad if you beat me, but I'd like to see you try."

Marinette studied the controller in her hands. "I'm really out of practice... Our tournament was back when the second game was brand new."

"The third game has exactly the same controls," Adrien told her, "just better graphics and a story mode. Come on, best out of three, that will give you a chance to get your touch back."

\--

Adrien won the first game, he thought Marinette was decent, but no match for him. Then in the second game he actually struggled to pull off the win. According to the 'best out of three' stipulation, Adrien had already technically won, but the closeness of the second game gave Marinette a load of her confidence back. As she stared intently at the countdown screen of the third match, Adrien found it pretty cute how the tip of her tongue poked out the side of her mouth.

"I did it!" she cheered at the end of the game.

"Too little, too late," Adrien told her. "It was best two out of three."

"Best three out of five?" Marinette pleaded.

\--

Adrien being nice and agreeing to extend their challenge to best out of five lost him the game. He didn't really mind though, Marinette's excitement at rediscovering the world of video games was reward enough. He doubted he'd have found a girl this attractive in both looks and personality if he'd gone shopping for one at market. He knew he was going to treasure this birthday present for years to come.

After several games, Adrien was called down stairs to his private lessons. Even on his birthday, he wasn't allowed to skip out. He didn't leave his two slaves with anything to keep them busy while he was gone, so Nino sat and listened to music while Marinette explored her new environment. She chatted a little bit with Nino. He explained to her that the room was generally kept pretty clean, but that due to the size of it they still had to do a little maintenance on it every day. The video game cases had to be removed from their shelf biweekly, each individually dusted, she shelf dusted, and then all placed back on the shelf in alphabetical order. The zipline had to be greased occasionally, and so on. He said that room maintenance was the most boring part of the day, but that it usually went pretty fast with the two of them, and that it would go even faster now that there were three people to pitch in and help. He also told her that Adrien would be eating dinner with his parents after his lesson, and that the two of them would be responsible for finding their own food in the mini fridge kept in the room.

After several hours Adrien returned, watched a few videos with his company, and decided it was time to go to sleep. Nino departed off into a side room where he had his bed, and Marinette hovered nervously, waiting to be told where she would sleep.

"All right, Marinette, you can change into your night clothes and -" he stopped, realizing Chloe hadn't given him any of Marinette's things. All he had was Marinette, and the clothes she was wearing at the moment. "I'll lend you some clothes for tonight. We'll go shopping for you tomorrow."

"I can make my own clothes!" Marinette exclaimed. Adrien looked up at her from where he was beginning to root through his drawers and watched the girl, surprised by her outburst. "I mean... if it pleases you... Master... Adrien."

"You know how to sew?"

"That was one of the few jobs Chloe let me do. I made and mended most of the clothes for all the slaves belonging to her and to her parents. I didn't dare tell her I liked that job, or she'd have likely given it to someone else out of spite."

Adrien walked over to Marinette, one of his t-shirts in hand. With his other hand, he lifted the hem of her jacket. "You made this too?"

"Y-yes, every bit of clothing I'm wearing right now, from jacket to underwear, I made myself."

"Take it off."

"W-what?"

"Take off your clothes, I'd like to inspect your work. You may leave your underwear on if you'd like, but then I'll be examining them on your body. You can put this on instead," he handed her his shirt.

"Can I go in the bathroom?"

"No. You know for what purpose you were given to me, Marinette, I'm going to see everything eventually."

Marinette had begun to hope Adrien had forgotten the intended purpose of her being given to him. Chloe had told her she was to be gifted to a boy who had fantasies of getting a slave girl pregnant. Her parents had been horrified by that news, it was rumored that sex slaves had life even worse than most. They were known to recieve special favors when their master was in a good mood, but to also be the most accessible person for their master to take out their feeling on any time they were in a bad mood. Sex slaves were also known to be tossed aside and replaced with younger counterparts as soon as their physical attractiveness started to decline. Many young slave children, especially the girls, grew up in fear of one day being selected as sex slaves. Marinette had the fear imprinted on her as well, and now those fears had become her reality. Her best chance now was to please Adrien as long as possible. She stalled revealing anything sensitive to him for the few moments she could by giving him first her shoes and then her jacket. Soon, however, she had to give him her pants and shirt. Standing almost naked in front of him, she was surprised most of his attention seemed to really be focused on her discarded clothes and not on her body. "I think even my father would be impressed with your craftsmanship," Adrien deduced. "He's fussy you know, he runs a company that produces designer clothes."

Marinette did know, while the other slaves back at home had worn her creations, the Bourgeois family themselves wore almost exclusively Agreste brand clothes. Adrien folded her outer garments neatly and placed them aside. "I want to see your underwear too."

Marinette had been contemplating how she might please her new master with the least amount of embarrassment to herself. She turned her back to him and removed her bra, reaching out behind her to offer it to him. "Here."

He took the bra. "And your underpants?"

"You said I could keep them on, I'd like too." She pulled the shirt he'd given her on over her head so that it covered her chest, then turned to face him. The shirt was baggy on her, and obscured the top of her panties as well. Knowing she'd be asked if she didn't do it voluntarily, she lifted the hem a few inches to reveal her underpants.

Adrien ran his fingers along the seams of her underwear, flipping the waistband inside out to inspect the inside stitching, and then straightened it out again. "Very good, you may let the shirt down."

Marinette gladly followed his most recent command. "Is that all?"

"Did you use a sewing machine or do all that by hand?"

"Sewing machine!" she answered, her unease beginning to dissipate when asked about her favorite hobby. "I could do it by hand, but it would take much longer."

"I can get you a sewing machine," Adrien promised. "I'm pleased that you have a recreational interest that is this useful. Now let's go to bed."

Marinette watched as he walked over to his bed and climbed up, then patted the spot beside him. "Come on."

Marinette faltered. "You want me to sleep with you on my very first night here?"

"This is your place, Marinette," he told her firmly. "You might as well get used to it. I want to create an emotional bond between us before I do anything sexual to you, but I want you to already be comfortable being close to me by the time we get there."

Marinette walked over to the bed, no longer sure if she was moving against her will or not. She was starting to want to make this boy happy, not entirely for fear of what would happen to her if she didn't, but because she just wanted to make this boy happy. Adrien was giving himself time to get used to her, so maybe that time would also be enough for her to emotionally prepare for what he expected of her. Maybe, if he was regularly as sweet as he'd been to her so far, she'd be able to accustom herself to her new life with him. She fell asleep with these thoughts in mind, and the pressure of his arm across her back.

"Good night, Dude and Dudette."

"Good night, Nino."

"Good night, Nino," Marinette echoed Adrien. Nino closed the door to his room.

"Are you feeling all right, Adrien?" Marinette asked her master.

"I'm feeling great, why?"

"It seems early to decide on bedtime. I'm not sleepy yet at all."

"Good, because you're not going to get to go to sleep for a couple more hours. I've decided it's time."

"Time for what?" Marinette asked. She thought she knew, but there had already been a few times in this month that she'd lived with him where she thought he was coming on to her and it had ended up being something else.

"Tonight I want to try to give you my baby." Well, that was blunt, at least now she knew certainly what he was planning.

"But, we've never even shared a kiss yet!"

"Then I guess that's first on the agenda tonight, isn't it?" He circled around in front of her and backed her toward his bed.

"I thought that at some point we'd kiss and stop there, then go a little farther the next time, and eventually work our way up to going all the way!"

"What ever gave you that idea? You thought wrong."

"Do you really want to take all of my firsts in one night?"

"Why not?" The back of Marinette's legs bumped the edge of the bed, forcing her to lay back to move any farther away from the advancing boy. Then her head was on the sheets and he was hovering over her. "This will be my first kiss as well. If you please me, maybe you'll be the only girl I'll ever kiss."

Somehow, Marinette felt she could believe the first part of what he said. Something about how slow and careful he was being with her, as though trying not to miss a bit of the experience, convinced her that despite how rich and hot this boy was, she really was his first girl. She doubted, however, that she would remain his only. Most noblemen kept at least one sex slave, and even those who contend themselves with one at a time would eventually look for a replacement after at most twenty years. Adrien would also in a decade or so be expected to find a wife. After all, only a woman of his same social standing would be considered suitable to bear his heir. Marinette found herself being jealous of these thoughts and pushed them away. For now, she couldn't help that she was his, so she might as well enjoy it and stop thinking about the day she no longer would be. She felt his lips caress hers, and felt his fingers removing articles of clothing, alternately hers and his own. After what seemed much longer than it possibly was, she felt the sting of him taking her virginity away from her. It hurt, but she hoped it would be worth it, hoped she would be able to give her master a healthy child, and that he would be pleased enough with her and their child to provide them both with a good future. 'Adrien is a good man,' she convinced herself. 'He can't help where he was born into this twisted class-based society any more than I can. We're a family now, and I have to trust him to take care of his family.'

Marinette stroked her small baby bump fondly. She wasn't quite sure when her master's seed had taken root in her womb, but she didn't really care. She was just thankful for this baby, who had become the center of her world. It appeared have become the center of Adrien's world as well. He'd become ever so protective of her, declaring many tasks potentially harmful to the baby. Ever since she's started to show her tasks had been limited to organizing his drawers and shelves (but only those at the right level so she didn't have to stretch or bend!), dusting (only if she wore a protective face mask!) and thankfully, sewing. Adrien's friend's slave had already given birth to her child, and Marinette had seen the boy who'd been dragging his feet about becoming a father gradually become enthralled with his infant son. If even that boy was begrudgingly enjoying his fatherhood, then Adrien, who had wanted their baby since before it was conceived, should be ecstatic once his child was finally brought into the world. Her baby made almost everything right. Even when complications of her pregnancy made her feel physically ill, her baby would flutter inside her stomach, and draw her attention away from her pain. She would still hurt just as much, but simply quite noticing the pain as a sense of peace washed over her. But, there was one pain her baby couldn't cure. Even as she was busy building the start of a new family inside her womb, her thoughts drifted back to the family she was born into. She wanted to tell her parents that she was okay, that her master treated her well, and show them the bump in her belly that proved her body was being put to good use, growing their healthy grandchild. She would have to ask Adrien about going to visit her family, he told her often these days how much he appreciated her for the 'gift' she had given him, he cared enough about her to let her have this right? She decided she was going to ask him when he came back from his photoshoot later that day, but when he came back, he asked her a question before she could get out her own.

"Marinette, have you seen Nino?"

"No. Not since you sent him to run errands this morning."

"He should have been back hours ago. Father's convinced he ran away. I know Nino wouldn't do that. Something's happened to him."

Marinette had to agree, Nino was content with his life and wouldn't just disappear like this. She couldn't bother her master with her own problems when he was distressed about losing his best friend.

Everyone from the Agreste family searched for any sign of Nino. Adrien's parents Gabriel and Emilie helped their son ask around in town, while the house was left under the watch of their most trusted slave, Nathalie. At the end of the day, Gabriel had to conclude that Nino had made a clean escape, there was nothing more they could do other than make a missing person's report with the police and hope that someone saw their missing slave. Then Nino came home. "Sorry, Du - uh, Master." Nino switched when he saw Gabriel there, glaring disapprovingly at him. "I ran into this chick at the market and she was buying a whole bunch of stuff for her family's farm. Way more than she could get home in one trip. I offered to help her and it took several trips even with two of us."

"Well, it seems your slave wasn't running away," Gabriel remarked, "just being an idiot. It's up to you how you choose to punish -"

"Hey, YOU!" A girl with light brown skin and darker brown hair came tearing up the road. "Are you Adrien Agreste?"

"I am, why do you -"

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, KEEPING THIS BOY A SLAVE LIKE YOU DO?! HE'S JUST AS HUMAN AS YOU ARE!"

"No," said Gabriel, stepping between the girl and his son. "Who do you think you are? You're from a commoner family, that makes you hardly better than a slave yourself. You shouldn't be speaking to us unless spoken to, and especially not in that tone."

"I'M ALYA CÉSAIRE, AND MY FAMILY IS POORER THAN YOURS BECAUSE WE HAVE A CONSCIENCE! YOU MAKE YOUR MONEY BY EXPLOITING INNOCENT PEOPLE WHO YOU KEEP PRISONER IN YOUR HOUSE. THIS SHOULD NEVER BE LEGAL! I CAN'T MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR ALL THE SLAVES IN THIS WORLD, BUT I CAN TELL YOU THAT IF YOU HAVE ANY DECENCY IN YOUR HEART YOU WILL RELEASE ALL OF YOUR SLAVES AT ONCE!"

"Miss, I suggest you leave our property at once. If you do not, I will call the police and have you thrown out."

"Father, wait," Adrien stepped in. "I'm Nino's owner, her quarrel is with me. Alya was it? Please come in and talk."

By the time Adrien returned to the bedroom it was dark out, and he was looking very pensive. "Alya just now left," Adrien sighed. "She talked both of my ears off, but I admit, I'd never considered her perspective before. She was even more enraged when she found out I have a slave who's pregnant with my child. I - I have to know, Marinette, are you happy here?"

"I want to go home," Marinette blurted out.

In the course of a few seconds Adrien's eyes registered confusion, horror, and sadness, then his eyes dropped to his lap. "Okay," he mumbled.

Marinette watched him, and understood what he thought. "Adrien, I meant for a visit. I love you, I just want to see my parents again."

"Oh," Adrien let out a breath of relief. "You scared me, Marinette. Yes, I can arrange that."

"You said 'okay'," Marinette murmured, "even when you thought I meant I wanted to leave you. Why would you do that? It's not like I have a choice."

"I couldn't keep you here if you were miserable," Adrien admitted. "I've fallen in love with you, and I can't be happy if I know you're not. Is a home visit really all you want?"

"I want to introduce you to my parents."

"Okay."

Adrien stood nervously outside of the bakery inside the walls of the Bourgeois estate. 'Why am I nervous about meeting them?' he asked himself, 'they're just a couple of slaves! But they're also the parents of my love... They're the grandparents of my child.'

He and Marinette had worked out a plan before he came. Andre's management style was pretty relaxed, and he more or less left two of his slaves alone to run the place. However, they weren't allowed to taste any of their wares. Andre suplied them with all the ingredients they would need to bake for the customers who came in from outside of the estate, and they had to answer to him if the money in the till didn't account for every missing roll and cookie. These were premium goods, the food Andre gave them to eat was the economic kind, befitting of slaves. The husband and wife had only ever tasted their customers leftovers when someone had chosen to dine in, and leave without finishing their dish. From this, and the smells the pastries produced while in the oven, Tom and Sabine had some idea which baked goods they would want to try most if they were allowed. Their daughter knew this, and passed the specifics onto Adrien. The first part of the plan was that he would go in fifteen minutes before they closed and order a selection of their favorite treats. Well, make it ten minutes before they closed after he was done being uncharacteristically shy.

"Can I help you?" The woman at the counter greeted him.

"Uh, yeah, I want a dozen of these, and a half dozen of those." He felt rattled, just looking at this woman, it was no doubt she was Marinette's mother. 'Meeting the parents is an important step in any relationship,' he reminded himself. 'What am I doing? She's not my girlfriend, she's my property! But... I still want to make a good impression on her parents.'

The next part of the plan was to go back into the bakery ten minutes after they closed, and bring the box of treats as a peace offering.

"Sorry, we're clos? It's you again! And Marinette?"

The couple rushed to hug their daughter, but were held back at arm's length. "Careful, please." They stood still, while she gingerly let herself into their loving arms, and only then did they feel the bump hidden under her clothes.

"Marinette! You're...?"

"Coming up on five months," she sighed happily. "Or maybe I'm already five months along but barely. We're not really sure when it was."

"So this is..."

"This is Adrien, my master, and the father of our baby. Don't worry, he treats me wonderfully."

"Nice to meet you," Adrien acknowledged them. "Speaking of treats, these are actually for you."

"That went well, my parents loved you!" Marinette cheered.

"You made me buy their love with pastries." Adrien complained.

"I don't have power to make you do anything," Marinette reminded him. "I asked you if you would and you did on your own. Besides, they wouldn't like someone just because of a few pastries."

As the chatty couple neared home, they saw someone sitting on the front steps. "That's Alya," Adrien sighed. "What does she want?"

"Adrien!" Alya stood up and greeted him. "Have you thought about what I said?"

"Yes, I have. As a matter of fact, I just went with Marinette to meet her parents. It turns out she'd been wanting that for months, but was afraid to ask me until I specifically asked her if she was happy. I should have realized earlier that she would be missing them, so thanks for that."

"That's a start," Alya snorted.

"What is it that you two talked about before?" Marinette asked.

"I've been trying to spread the word about why slavery is immoral," Alya explained. "Your boyfriend here is the first person of the so-called 'noble class' to hear me out."

"He's not my boyfriend," Marinette corrected her, "he's my master."

"Girl, I don't believe in calling any human another human's master. You're obviously romantically involved with each other, but you're not married or engaged, so it only makes sense to call him your boyfriend. Adrien, being sensitive to your captives' feelings is a good thing, but it still doesn't excuse the fact that you are holding people captive."

"If he offered me my freedom, I wouldn't want to leave," Marinette defended him.

"That's good!" Alya exclaimed. "It decreases the resistance against emancipation. The most popular justification for slavery is that business would fall apart without forced labor, but if you stay willingly after being freed, and manage to be successful, it will send a message to other slave holders that it's possible to be successful without being an oppressive jerk."

That argument changed Marinette's thinking completely "Adrien, can't you? Not for me, but for slaves that don't have such a good master?"

Adrien sighed, "you attribute more power to me than I have. I can't just set them free. Sure, I could let them out of the house to go where they please, but eventually they would have to look for work to sustain themselves, and the minute they did, they would be rounded up and resold at auction because they have no proof of being free. You and I, Alya, have documents that identify us a free people, if we lost those or destroyed them, we could be sold off as slaves ourselves. I can't just give them this paperwork. A person is decided to be slave or free at a very young age, the decision is made on the ... birth certificate." Adrien's voice got quiteter.

"What did you just realize?"

"You'll see."

\--

Marinette lay in bed, holding her sleeping newborn in her arms. She was exhausted, but the agonizing process of giving birth was over, and the baby was asleep, so she should be able to relax. She sighed, it was impossible to relax with people yelling at each other in the hallway outside the room. The entire time she'd been carrying the child, Adrien's parents had seemed indifferent to her pregnancy. She could tell this wasn't a grandchild to them, but merely a slave child. Now, on the day of birth, something had stirred them up.

The door opened and Adrien came in, looking angrier than Marinette had ever seen him before. He said nothing to her, and sat on the edge of the bed. "What's wrong?" she asked, brushing her fingertips across his arm.

"I made an unpopular decision," Adrien growled, "but my mind's made up and I couldn't change it now if I wanted to." He looked down at the baby and his expression softened. "She's a free child."

"What?"

"When two slaves have a child, the child will automatically be a slave. When two free people have a child that child will be free. But when a child is born to one free and one slave, it's the free parent's choice if the child will be slave or free. I didn't even know this until I started looking into what I would have to do to register her birth. The only socially acceptable answer is to make the child a slave, because a free person with one parent who is a slave is expected to grow too lenient toward their slaves. My parents are mad because declaring Emma free also makes her my heiress. If the laws ever change so that I can set you free, I will, and then I'll marry you. Until then, I'll treat you as though you were my wife. If I'm never able to set you free, there will come a day when Emma will inherit ownership of you, and she will certainly treat you with love and respect since you are her mother. I'm also setting a new goal, to buy abused slaves and give them a better life, but we're going to have to work hard to rescue as many people as possible. I need your help, are you with me on this?"

**END**


	2. Ferriswheel

"He's not thrilled, but I can't help being jealous of him." Adrien stood with three of his friends, in line for the ferriswheel. The gimmick behind this new attraction was that the ride was several hours long and that customers were served an entire dinner as part of the experience. The four friends had been chatting about topics of little consequence until Adrien brought up a couple of other teen models he was acquainted with who had hooked up with each other and were expecting a baby as the result.

"Do you have a crush on his girlfriend?" Marinette probed, looking at her feet.

"No! She's nice enough, but I don't like her that way. I'm jealous of the relationship itself. They've definitely been forced closer to each other since they've learned their going to have a baby. I just wish I could have that closeness with someone."

The group's turn came and they boarded one of the buckets. Nino and Alya wanted to sit together, so Adrien and Marinette sat next to each other as well, opposite of their friends. "Please allow us time for your first course to be prepared," the operator told them, and closed the door.

As Adrien continued talking about the predicament his colleagues had found themselves in, Marinette noticed something. She realized what it must be. On an impulse that even she couldn't understand, she reached over and pinched it.

"Marinette?!" Adrien stared at the girl he'd believed to be far too innocent to do that. "Do you know what you're touching?"

Marinette's face grew bright red, but she dared to give it another squeeze. Adrien's erection, which had been barely visible when he'd sat down, grew with every touch.

"What are you doing, Girl?" Alya asked. This couldn't be the same girl who couldn't even speak an intelligible sentence to that boy.

Marinette refused to say anything, but flashed a smile to all of her friends in the bucket. She slid onto the floor, and crawled to face Adrien.

"Marinette?" he asked her again, wondering where his shy friend had gone.

She reached up and pulled down the zipper to his pants, letting out his reproductive organ. At this point she finally hesitated, then licked it.

Adrien groaned, "you don't have to do this you know, but... that does feel good."

Nino and Alya shared a horrified look, Adrien was losing his senses too.

Marinette experimented with different angles, trying to figure out how best to put her mouth on him, while her fingers worked into her own pants. Adrien figured his story had excited his friend, and he was getting a favor because of it. He was a little bewildered, but not complaining. Then her head jerked swiftly down over his crotch and he felt a certain bodypart slide down her throat. Tears slid down her face, and she began gagging, but refused to let go. It was then he realized she wasn't having fun, so then why was she doing it?

"Stop this, Marinette, you're hurting yourself." He took her head in both hands and had to pry her off of him. "Why? That started out hot, but seeing you in pain turns me off."

She met his gaze, tears still in her eyes. "You don't have to be jealous. You can experience it too." She stood up shakily and dropped her pants. Her crotch exposed, it was evident she was aroused as well. She tried to lower herself onto him, but he put his hand in between their private parts, blocking her.

"You're volunteering yourself?"

She nodded.

"Is this really what you want? Not like that episode of gagging yourself a few minutes ago, it's not a ploy to try to make me happy?"

"Yes, I mean, it's not."

He removed his hand, and she once again tried to connect them, but he stopped her again, this time with his hands on her waist. "No, our food will be here soon, and I don't want the wait staff to catch us. It's bad enough we're doing this in front of our friends. Turn around." She let him turn her so her back was facing him. "Now sit down." As she lowered herself onto his lap, he guided his penis into her. She gasped and whimpered at the new sensation, but the two worked together to get it firmly planted the rest of the way inside of her. "Now," he said, running his fingers down her arms, "we're going to sit like this clear through the end of dessert. Let's hurry and get you filled up before the first course gets here, and pull the fold out table down to hide our union. All the servers will see is you sitting on my lap, but I'll be blocking my seed's escape, so that it has no choice but to swim up inside and fertilize you."

Marinette, who was around that time getting over the pain of her first penetration, nodded in agreement. She began wriggling, doing her best to hasten the release of his life giving sperm into her body. Adrien tried moving her up and down with his hands, but finding that he couldn't move his own hips with her seated on top of him, he twisted around and pressed her into the wall. From there, he was able to work in and out of her as she continued wiggling until they both around the same time found release. Exhausted, they collapsed back into their seat, smiling like maniacs.

Alya crossed her arms, "I hope you two don't come to regret that."

"Uh, dudes, the food is coming." A wide eyed Nino told them, and unfolded the table from inside the wall.

The waiter responsible for serving the appetizers found this bucket already had its table pulled down, four blushing teens sitting around it. One girl was sitting on a boys lap. "Teens, they looked like they were hiding something. I wonder what that could be?"

**END**


	3. Truth or Dare: Battle Royale

"As part of their premiere season, the new TV gameshow Truth or Dare: Battle Royale has invited all middle and high schools in and around the city of Paris to enter for a chance to win 10.000 worth of school equipment. Our class has been chosen to represent Francios Dupont as one of ten schools in the first game! Which ever school has the most points by the end of the week is the winner. I'm not sure how a game of Truth or Dare is scored, but we'll find out when we get to the game lodge. Here are the permission slips you need to go over with your parents.

\--

"Each suite contains one kitchen, one bathroom, and two bedrooms. Two boys or two girls only per bedroom, but you may share a common area if you'd like. Next to the dorms is the storeroom, all our goods are complementary during your stay, but may not be taken with you off the premises. Each one of you will have your luggage searched before you leave. Finally, we have the game hall. We will have two games a day running from 8-12 and from 2-6. We'll explain tomorrow morning how to play, now it's time to pick your roommates and move in to the dorms."

"Come on, Girl," Alya nudged Marinette. "We're going to go ask the boys to share a room with us."

"W-what? Sleep with Adrien? I can't do that."

"Relax girl, weren't you listening? The bedrooms are seperated by gender, you'll only have to share with me, but we have to choose two more roommates to share a common area. It basically means we're going to be eating together with them and stuff like that."

"Oh, right."

\--

"Tikki are you awake?"

Tikki yawned, "barely. Are you having trouble sleeping, Marinette?"

"Mmhmm."

"Nervous about tomorrow?"

"No, it's just that this is the time of night we're usually on patrol with Chat. I thought it would be a relief to get to bed earlier, but my body is used to our normal schedule."

"Do you want to go outside? Maybe a brief run will help tire you out."

"Sure, as long as we can transform without waking Alya."

"Ladybug! Is that you?!" Chat bounded up to his partner as soon as he spotted her from across the roof top. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Uh, Chat! I wasn't expecting you either you know. So... your school is competing in the game as well?"

"Why, yes we are!" Chat put a hand on her shoulder. "Isn't this a purrrfectly wonderful coincidence?"

"Yes it is," Ladybug smiled, removing his hand from her shoulder. "This way I know I'll be playing against at least one worthy opponent."

"But My Lady!" Chat protested, "you know we're always on the same team!"

"Normally we are, but this week, we're rivals. Think of it as training, Chaton. Be ready for anything, and don't let yourself get backed into a corner."

\--

"All right, welcome students!" the game announcer cheered. "I'm sure you're all itching to get to playing, so let's get the rules out of the way as soon as possible. I'm sure you all know how truth or dare is normally played, we've made a few modifications to the rules. We want everyone to play both truth and dare, so you won't be picking for yourselves. You'll start by drawing a hand of seven cards. Cards will say either 'truth', 'dare', or the name of a school. When it's your turn, you choose either a truth or dare card, and a school card from your hand. Then you are free to challenge any student from that school. End your turn by drawing two new cards. The deck is built in a way that it should force you to alternate back and forth between truth and dare every few turns. If you ever find yourself with an unplayable hand, show it to a referee, discard your entire hand, and draw seven new cards. Every time you make a play, as either player one or two, the audience at home will have the option to vote whether you were 'cool' or 'uncool'. Voting remains open on each individual play until midnight on the day it was made. Each school gains one point for every 'cool' vote earned by any of their students, and loses one for every 'uncool' vote, so be sure to play as wacky as possible and impress your audience! Oh, and to make sure no one is tempted to take the easy way out, the penalty for passing your turn isn't just all the 'uncool' votes you'll get, it costs your hand. This time I'm no longer talking about your hand of cards, I'm talking about that useful appendage at the end of your arm." An assistant revealed a wicked looking contraption that looked like a cross between a paper cutter and a guillotine.

"You can't be serious!" a teacher from one of the other schools shouted. "My students and their families never agreed to such conditions!"

"But of course they did! Here are the liability waivers signed by your students and all applicable legal guardians."

Many students had issue with that, but the announcer calmly rebutted their claims.

"Hey! Let me see mine! ... That looks like my signature, but I've never seen this document before! Someone forged my signature!"

"I assure you it was in the bundle of papers we sent home with you. Maybe this will teach you not to sign your name to anything without reading it throughly."

"I can't lose a hand, I'm too young and beautiful!"

"It is not our intention for anyone to actually lose their hand during this week, it's a perfectly avoidable outcome. Just don't back out of any dares."

\--

The first two day went by with fairly normal truth or dare shenanigans. Players who'd thought they would never be bored of the game learned that an eight hour day with only one lunch break in the middle really was a lot of truth or dare. They were lucky the creative strain was split between nearly a hundred people. By the second day, even their combined imaginations were running out of steam. Still, they put out an effort to be creative, inspired by a desire to keep their hands to themselves.

On the third day, people were getting desperate. Classic truth or dare questions that had been voted cool the first day were now most often falling flat, and in some cases, even losing a sizable chunk of points for their school. Students began huddling with their classmates, strategizing how they might pull ahead of the other schools. Many were of the opinion that they needed one thing: shock value.

Francois Dupont students noticed that one particular group of three boys from their rival school kept glancing at them. What were they up to? Then it was the turn of one of those boys. He laid out his cards for the camera to see. "Francois Dupont, Truth. Adrien Agreste, on the first day, you acknowledged that you have a crush. Is your crush here on studio property?"

"Um," Adrien thought back to his runin with Ladybug on the first night. "Yes."

The second boy made his play. "Francois Dupont, Dare. Adrien Agreste, I dare you to put your penis into your crush's vagina, and don't take it out until she cums."

Adrien's face turned red and he coughed. "Excuse me?"

"I didn't see anything in the rules that indicate I can't ask you that. It really is a genius play if I say so myself. The viewers want to know who everyone has a crush on, but why should I waste a truth card to get an answer when I can give you a dare that forces you to reveal your crush and more."

"I can't carry out this dare."

"If you don't do it you'll lose your hand."

"No!" Adrien started to panic. "Please listen, it's physically impossible for me to carry out this dare! I shouldn't have to lose my hand for that. Referee?"

"I rule that this dare is within physical limitation. Young man, if your crush is indeed one of the other contestants here, she is under contractual obligation to allow you to perform these acts on her. You have until the end of filming today to choose to carry out your dare. If you have not completed this task by 6:00 tonight, we will have to amputate your hand."

"I didn't think I was going to have an active part in this," the third boy said, "but it's lucky I still have a card I can play. I might know what's going on. Francois Dupont, Truth. Adrien Agreste, does your crush have a vagina?"

Several other players in the room burst out laughing. "Gay!" someone yelled.

"I'm not gay," Adrien shook his head. "She is a girl."

The boy who'd asked the question actually looked surprised. "I thought that was the only possible answer left! Well, if she's a girl she has a vagina, and you can put your penis in it. Oh, wait... do you not have a penis?"

"Objection!" the referee called. "You can't ask him that! You have no more truth cards in your hand and it's not even your turn!"

'Now is when he calls an objection?!' Adrien thought. "No, I'll explain, if it means I get to keep my hand. We both have all of the body parts associated with our gender, I just, don't know who my crush is right now. I know that she has more than one identity, but I don't know who all of her identities are. I know she's on set because I saw her on the night we got here, she can't have left, but she must be in another identity now. She's here, but at the same time, she's not."

"That sounds like a horribly desperate lie to get out-"

"I HAVE A CRUSH ON LADYBUG!" Adrien yelled wide eyed. Nearby, Marinette tensed. Misinterpreting her friend's feeling, Alya patted her friend on the back.

"If Ladybug is here, will Ladybug please come forward!" the announcer called. "If you do not, you'll be costing this poor boy his hand!"

"Even if she did come forward," Adrien shook his head, "she wouldn't be able to cary it out. The superheroes' suits don't come off like normal clothes. It would be impossible to do 'the act' without detransforming."

"We'll make an exception this once, her other identity can stand in for her."

Adrien sighed in defeat, it didn't look like they were letting him off the hook.

"Doesn't look like she's coming forward, tough break, boy. You might reconsider your feelings for her if she hangs you out to dry."

Meanwhile, Marinette was struggling with conflicting thoughts. Revealing her identity here could potentially put the entire city in danger. But... Adrien! He was in this mess because of her! The damage that could be caused if Hawkmoth got ahold of her miraculous was worth a lot more than one hand. But Adrien could never love her if he ever learned what she'd done to him. "I am Ladybug." Marinette stood to her feet.

"No she's not," Chloe scoffed. "She just wants to get with Adrien."

Adrien, on the other hand, didn't believe Marinette had any reason to lie. "Help me, Mari, please!" he pleaded with her.

"This is getting exiting, it looks like Ladybug has come forward after all! Adrien Agreste may procede with his dare."

"Hold on, are you going to let them get away without proof that she's Ladybug?"

Knowing how dangerous a situation they were already in, and how much more dangerous it would become if Marinette gave proof, Adrien protested. "The dare never said it had to be Ladybug, only my crush, so I'm the only one who has to believe it's her. I believe, so let's just get this done."

When Marinette walked over to him, he saw that she was shaking a little. "I'm so sorry I dragged you into this," he told her.

"I don't like that this is part of a dare, or that it's going to be on TV, but I can at least be glad that it's you."

That admission of hers made Adrien feel at least a little less uncomfortable. "Unfortunately we can't have real privacy, we'll have to provide proof we completed the dare, but we should at least be able to find somewhere where the camera won't catch us," he suggested.

\--

As the found a somewhat quiet spot against one wall, a thought occured to Adrien, and he couldn't help a chuckle despite their predicament.

"How can you laugh now?" Marinette asked him.

"I just remembered that a couple of nights ago you told me not to let anyone back me into a corner. Right now you're the one with your back facing the corner."

"I told that to... oh... of course you're that dumb cat. That makes way more sense."

"Are you still glad it's me, Bugaboo?" he asked her.

"... Yes, I am, but remember, I only have my back _literally _in the corner. I'd say being in peril of having your hand chopped off qualifies you as being backed into a corner."

"Touché."

The two fumbled with each other, relying on their instincts to tell them how. They managed to get his tip lined up with her entrance, but rather than push his way through her barrier, he stopped. "I can't do it."

"Why not?"

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Adrien, one of the two of us is going to bleed today. I can recover from this, I won't feel it in a few days. If you don't do it, the damage is going to be way worse."

"You're right, I know, but it's not really about who gets hurt or how badly, I just can't bring myself to hurt you."

Marinette braced herself against the wall, then without warning him what she was doing, pushed herself off the wall and onto him. She winced as the momentum forced him farther into her, then looked up and met his eyes. "I did that to myself, you have no reason to feel guilty. Now hurry up and make sure I didn't hurt myself in vain."

Marinette had to fight past the pain before she could feel anything else, by the time it was starting to feel good for her, Adrien was struggling to stay away from the edge himself. "There's no way," he panted "I have to pull out of you."

"If you do that," Marinette warned him, "then all of this will be for nothing. The condition they gave was for me to orgasm, not you. You have to hold on."

Adrien gritted his teeth and focused his energy on not losing control. Marinette helped him as best she could, closing her eyes and focusing on the sensation, trying to speed her own process along. Just as she felt she might be getting close, Adrien said something that signaled an enormous change in their lives. "I'm so sorry, Marinette." Then he let go.

Feeling his release was just what her body needed to trigger its own. She convulsed, her womb pulling his seed farther in to itself. As soon as Adrien saw he'd completed the requirements of the dare, he separated himself from her body and allowed the rest of his ejaculate to fall to the ground, stunting the chances that their copulation would bring extra consequences, but they both knew that enough had gotten inside of her to potentially bring about a new beginning.

"May we be excused to clean up?" Marinette asked the referee who had come to inspect their work.

"You'll be leaving your team at a disadvantage if they're short two players, but you've put on a good show today. Yes, I give you permission."

"You saved me, Marinette. I really am sorry for everything I've put you through today." Adrien told her as they sat in the common area of their dorm room.

"I'm not mad at _you_, Adrien," Marinette told him, rooting through a bag of supplies she'd collected from the storeroom. "I'm mad at those idiots who thought it was funny to give you that dare, and I'm mad at the producers of this show who let them get away with it. Everyone here already knows those creeps are doing something illegal. We know our signatures were forged on that liability waver. It wouldn't be that far of a stretch to think they were hoping someone would have a pregnancy scare."

"Why do you think that?" Adrien asked.

"Because of the selection of items they have in the storeroom, and what they don't have. The supplies are for the use of the contestants, and all the contestants are teenagers. Why would they think to supply this?" She pulled a pregnancy test out of the bag. "The storeroom looks like they picked up a convenience store and plopped it down inside their studio, I thought that might explain why the test kits were there, but if that were true, other items that should be there have been removed. No morning after pill, no birth control, and no condoms. Even the package of the pregnancy test is suspicious, look."

"Whoah, today was rough on you two, wasn't it?" Nino asked when he and Alya got back to the room. "How are you fairing?"

"We're making out... I mean... We're making _it _out _all right_." Marinette corrected herself.

"I'm surprised at how calm you are, Girl. Just scrambling your words a little? That's nothing for you. Hold on..." Alya walked over to the trash can and peered into it. "The two of you are still pretty innocent, aren't you."

"Alya! How could you say that when you know what happened today?"

"There's a used pregnancy test in the trash."

"Yeah, and it came back negative, so we don't have anything to worry about."

"This is what I mean about you still being innocent, you don't fully understand how sex works. You can't take a pregnancy test on the same day and expect it to be accurate."

"I can't?"

"No. Didn't you read the instructions on the package? It should tell you something about it."

"It was weird," Adrien pipped up, "the instructions on the package weren't in French. We had to guess at how to use it. Marinette, you thought that was done on purpose to hide something from us. Do you think that something could be what Alya is telling us now?"

"Hmm," was all Marinette said.

"Could be," Alya decided. "I remember when my mom was pregnant with my little sisters. She told Nora and me that she didn't know for two weeks if 'the stork' was going to send her another baby or not. When I got a little older I found out what she really meant."

"Two weeks?" Marinette started to panic, "but we'll be home before then! If I get pregnant, there will be no way to prove it's the fault of this stupid game!"

"Calm down, if that's what you're worried about, I'm positive it will be pretty evident how it happened."

"Actually," Marinette said, "maybe I don't want them to take credit. That's what they want isn't it? They'd get a lot of publicity if it was rumored that a teenager got pregnant because of a TV show. I'd be playing into their hand. I don't want the program to benefit from this."

"You don't know if you are going to get pregnant at all. Maybe your next test in a couple of weeks will be negative as well."

"Maybe we should talk about something else," Nino suggested. "Lots of voters decided those three boys were 'uncool', unfortunately there were still a lot of people who decided they were 'cool'. They gained more points than they lost with that stunt, and now their school is in second place. However, apparently everybody and their brother voted favorably for you. Francois Dupont is now in first place!"

"No fair," one of the three troublemakers complained, "those two could sneeze and it would trigger a flood of upvotes for them. They haven't done anything interesting since yesterday. Pitty points are what those are."

"Yep, and you're the reason we deserve those pitty points, so stop whining," Marinette told him.

"It wasn't our plan to make him cum inside of you, you bought the audience with that move."

"Hey, hey, stop arguing," the referee got after them.

"Police! We're shutting this operation down!"

"Papa!" Sabrina ran up to her father, who had just busted down the door.

"Sabrina, I'm working right now. Let me do my job, please."

"Right, sorry, Papa."

"I apologize that our response could have been sooner," Roger Raincomprix walked over to the teachers, who were apparently responsible for having summoned the police there in the first place. "We had a handwriting expert analyze the contracts, and though it took days to get through all of them, we have determined that they were all forged signatures lifted from your permission slips. It is the belief of the police force that those responsible are dangerous and that they intended to carry out the threats outlined in the contract. Does everyone still have all their limbs?"

"Adrien!" Marinette came up to him at school, blushing. "H-here."

Adrien looked down at what she had put in his hand, it was a positive pregnancy test. "Mari..."

"I'm keeping it." She told him. "The courts are requiring the TV network to provide child support. You don't have to be involved unless you want to."

"Why wouldn't I..." his throat went dry. He swallowed a few times, trying to regain his ability to talk. "want to be involved?"

Marinette smiled, "I was pretty sure you would want to be part of this, I just needed you to know I'm not holding you responsible, at all. Anything you choose to do for this child I'll see as coming from the kindness of your heart, and not paternal obligation."

Adrien frowned. "I don't know if I like someone else paying for our child. I'm capable of supporting it myself."

"I know you could, and you would, but this isn't just about money, it's about justice. Those people have to be punished for what they did, and having to send payments for a child they indirectly caused shouldn't let them forget about it. If it makes you feel better, we could donate the support payments to someone who needs it more, but refusing them all together would be letting criminal behavior off easy."

"Yes, please. ... Marinette? Do you feel like we were the winners in that gameshow? Our school did technically win everything, but what about _us._"

"You mean..." Marinette put a hand over her belly. "It was quite a shock, but yes, this is a win."


	4. A Wish From the Future

Adrien lay in bed one night, trying to go to sleep, when a glowing light started spinning somewhere in his room. At first he decided he was seeing things and closed his eyes, one simply cannot trust their vision when they are half asleep. Then he heard footsteps coming toward him. "Adrien?" a female voice asked him, "you're awake aren't you?"

Adrien scrambled to turn on his bedside light. There, sitting at the foot of his bed, was Ladybug, but not the same Ladybug. She looked like the same person, but older. Now he was sure he was already dreaming. "What are you?" he asked sleepily.

"I've come here from the future," she told him. "I'm afraid things have gone very wrong in my world, and I need your help."

"Is this about Hawkmoth?" Adrien guessed.

"No, finding and defeating Hawkmoth will be a challenge for you, but you don't need my guidance on that. The problem I'm asking you to solve is one from our personal lives. Once apon a time, just as I was newly married, I was diagnosed with a fast growing cancer. It was stage four before anyone knew what was going on, and I died."

Adrien gave her a weird look, "but you're here now."

"There is a lesser known miraculous," she told him, "that allows the user to fuse with their past self and retain all of their memories. Once the fusion is complete, their former timeline ceases to exist, but all the people are preserved within their past self. Anyone who is directly affected by the time travel retains two sets of memories, while other people do not. This might be the cause of the Mandela effect. However, it only works when the holder is grieving the recent death of a loved one. My husband took his grief and traveled to warn me, when I was still a teenager, about my upcoming cancer diagnosis. Then he fused himself with his teenage self and we gained their memories." Ladybug blushed, "it was a good weird, going through high school with him, and remembering having been married to him in a past life. I got screened regularly, and they caught the cancer on time, but..." she looked down and her fingers clenched, "it was still harder to beat than they thought. The treatment left me barren at age nineteen. We were happy for a little while, we got married again, but then... it came to a point where we desperately wanted a baby. We looked into adoption, but it's a much more complicated process than we ever expected, and we couldn't help but wonder what a baby of our own would be like. We started toying with the idea of resetting our lives again, what if we had a baby back in high school when I was still capable of it? It got to where we couldn't think of anything else, and we made a sort of suicide pact. I killed my husband so that I could travel back in time and arrange a better future for the both of us. But I didn't kill him, because you are my husband, or... you will be my husband. You get what I mean."

"So if I understand correctly, you're asking me to have a baby with your former self? Now?"

"Well, that's just about it. We would be content with just one kid, but we always thought it would be nice to have three. If we allow for time for her-me-us to recover between pregnancies, you would have to start now to achieve that. I'm only asking you to commit to one right now, and then you can decide if you're up to having more."

"There are few things I wouldn't do to have the perfect family someday. If this is the only way, I'll do it," Adrien agreed, "but this is too awkward of a topic for me to bring up with her, you'll have to explain it to yourself for me."

"Unfortunately I can't do that for you. The stress hormone is a very good contraceptive. If she knows this is her only chance to get pregnant, she probably won't be able to. She has to be kept calm in order to increase her chances. It's probably best if she doesn't even know you're trying to get her pregnant."

"So you want me to get her pregnant against her will?!"

"No, she is me, and I'm giving you permission. This is for her own good."

"... so I have to hurt her now in order to help her later... I don't know."

"I'll talk to our families ahead of time so they get what's going on, and I'll be the one to explain to her once she's pregnant why you had to do it. She'll understand, especially when she gains my memory."

"Fine, but if we have to trick her into doing this, how am I going to... get access?"

"The first thing you need to know is who I really am. The way I was at her age, you wouldn't get anywhere with Ladybug, but when we're both in our civilian forms, you'd be surprised what I would have let you do to me if you'd asked. My hormones were out of control. Tikki, spots off."

Adrien didn't think it was polite for him to just stare at the woman that would one day be his wife, so he said the first thing that came to mind. "Even after a battle with cancer, you're still beautiful, Marinette."

That got a laugh out of the woman. "Remind me of that when you're waiting for my hair to grow back in, that's when I'll need to hear it the most."

"I'll tell you that every day." Adrien promised, "since you're here, can I ask you something? Why did you used to be afraid of me?"

"Because I love you, silly," Marinette bopped him on the nose, in the way that was familiar to him from Ladybug. "In my first life it took me forever to control myself around you. In my second life, the one I'm living right now, I had the advantage of memories from my first life to speed the process along. The third me, your Marinette, most likely won't gain control of her feelings until I fuse with her. Use that to your advantage. When you see her at school tomorrow, you don't have to seduce her just yet. Try to secure some alone time with her later in the week, that will make the next step easier. I'll also see if I can get you any intel on when her most fertile days are. Now, if you'll excuse me, my parents and father-in-law sent messages with me to their past selves. I'd better get those delivered soon or this will be even more trouble than I bargained for. Expect to see me again in a couple of days."

\--

"I can't believe what I agreed to do to her," Adrien confided in Plagg. "My Marinette seems so much more fragile than Ladybug or the older Marinette."

"The older her has more life experience, so it makes sense why you would get that impression, but Ladybug? Come on, Kid, you know they're practically interchangeable."

"I keep reminding myself that, it's still hard to wrap my head around. She's stronger than she looks, she'll be all right." Throughout class, he'd been acutely aware of her presence behind him, watching the back of his head. He knew the behavior was nothing new for her, but it got to him like never before, being able to feel but not see _his _girl. Between classes, when he didn't have to keep his back to Marinette, Nino caught him staring at her. Adrien did his best to play it off, and covertly keep vigilante for a moment alone with her. Nino was gone to the restroom, Alya was talking to some of their other classmates, and Marinette was alone, drawing something in her sketchbook. Adrien approached her.

"Hey, Marinette!" Was all he'd settled on saying to her. He'd gone over a few plans for how thir conversation might go, but they all seemed like they were missing something. Was it too forward of him to ask her out, or should he come up with some other excuse to spend time with her? The topics he wanted to discuss most with her were the same ones he had to keep secret.

"Hi, A-adrien!" It gave him a sense of dissonance to look at her innocent face while remembering what he had been told; she'd let him do just about anything to her. He could take that two ways, one was that she was secretly perverted, and the other was that she trusted him deeply. It made him feel better to assume the second possibility was true.

"I've been thinking of you a lot recently," he told her truthfully. "I don't think we're as well acquainted as I would like us to be."

"Really?" It was cute to him how Marinette lit up, like she was hopeful he suggest they do something about that and get to know each other better.

"Yes, uh, would you like to go -" 'don't say _go out _just yet,' he warned himself, 'you'll scare her!' "get a smoothie with me sometime?"

"Yes!" she nearly yelled. "I mean, I already have plans today, and your schedule is packed tomorrow, so the next day?"

Adrien didn't question why she knew when he was going to be busy, all that mattered was that he'd scheduled a date, because whether they called it that or not, that's what it was.

As he walked back to wait for Nino, he bumped into a hooded figure wearing a Groucho Marx mustache. "Good job."

"Marinette?" he asked. "I thought it was going to be a few days before you were back. What are you wearing?"

"There are too many people here that I can't risk recognizing me! So, you scheduled a time with her?"

"Yeah, the day after tomorrow, smoothies."

"Smoothies! I used to imagine all the time that that would be a great first date. We must be on the same wavelength. This is good, you should be able to take her out a few times before you have to move forward. I decided to contact you again now so that you can plan accordingly. I had to go through her trashcans, but I've determined that she's going to ovulate at the end of next week. I've arranged for you to be invited over for dinner that same night, it should be easier to put her at ease in her own home. Preferably you should get her excited enough that she forgets the possible consequence of unprotected sex, but if she does ask about protection, I've prepared this." She handed him what looked to be a condom in a foil wrapper.

He turned it over in his fingers, it looked normal to him, but he'd only ever seen one in health class. "You did something to this one, right?"

Marinette nodded. "There's a few pinpricks that will open up under friction. Even with the holes, it will still hold back most of your cum, severely limiting the chances. If the tears stay small there's a chance she won't notice and you can try again, but if it opens up all the way, she'll know the condom broke and will be on extra high allert the next time. In other words, a broken condom is a one-time trick, if you try it and don't get her pregnant the first time, you're done."

"Understood." Adrien's fist closed around the foil packet. This was something solid for him to hold onto, to remind him he was really going through with this.

\--

'Is this a date? It's not a date. It's totally a date!' Marinette - the teenaged one - sipped her smoothie, trying to figure out what the boy across from her was thinking of her at the moment. It wasn't wrong to assume that he was thinking about her, was it? He had asked her out, after all.

Adrien was busy being enamored with how resilient this girl was. She already managed life as a superhero with no one from her civilian life to confide in. In the next couple of years, she would be faced with a cancer diagnosis and a baby! (Okay, that last bit was going to be his doing.) He knew that through all of it she would stay strong.

Marinette found that she couldn't keep stuttering the whole time. The golden boy would sit and watch her patiently as she struggled to get her words out, allowing her nerves to dissipate until words became sentences and she was talking to him! Coherently! He enjoyed both listening to her, and the fact that she seemed genuinely interested in what he had to say, including when he said "I'd like to see you again, Marinette."

\--

"My parents wanted me to..." Marinette rocked back on her heels, nervously, "invite you to have dinner with us."

Adrien found it hard to breathe. That was his signal. The older Marinette had put her family up to this, he didn't know how she'd convinced them.

"S-sure, I'll be there." Stuttering was supposed to be her thing, but his nerves were on fire. How was he supposed to handle this? Earlier that week they'd made it to a first kiss, honestly more progress than he'd been expecting, but still a far cry from what he was expected to do that night.

"Great! Then, I'll be seeing you." She kissed his cheek.

\--

"Good evening, Adrien." Marinette greeted him. The two exchanged kisses on the cheek, they weren't going to kiss romantically quite this early in the evening.

Adrien greeted Marinette's parents as well. They returned the greeting politely, but watched him warily the whole time. Of course, Marinette was the only one in the house not knowing what was planned for that night.

Dinner was excellent, a savory pie with meat and vegetables. This truly was the best place for anything baked! In that same bakery, in a short while, he would be attempting to put a bun in the oven.

"I imagine you two would like to spend some time alone together before Adrien has to go home... why don't you go ahead and go up stairs for awhile?"

Adrien lingered a moment after Marinette left the room, trying to collect his nerves. He felt guilty, he'd been enjoying Marinette's company all evening without thinking sexually about her, and now he had to force himself to get into the mood. He was just about ready to go when Tom stopped him. "You're going to love her for the rest of your life?"

"Yes, Sir."

"And you realize that Marinette's disease is going to severely incapacitate her for awhile? If you do this, you could end up having to take care of a toddler by yourself while she's recovering."

"I understand."

"We're putting our trust in you Adrien, go on."

\--

"I love everything about being here!" Adrien declared, sitting on the edge of Marinette's chaise lounge. I love the atmosphere, the food, and most of all, you."

"Me?" Marinette squeeked.

"Of course," Adrien stretched luxuriously, making an effort to seem completely relaxed. "Why wouldn't I love you?"

The vibe he was setting started to work on Marinette, boosting her confidence. "I love you too."

"That makes me really happy," Adrien threw an arm around her, "because all I want," he pulled her in close to him, "is to kiss you." He let himself get lost in their kiss, making it more passionate by the moment.

"Are you sure all you want to do is kiss?" She poked him playfully. He was starting to get excited and she'd noticed.

He groaned, but it was too early to give in. He needed her to be turned on enough that she wouldn't care if he wanted to take her bareback, he didn't think she was quite there yet.

"Later, we have time." He kissed her ear, then moved back to her mouth, gradually shifting her onto her back, and himself on top of her.

"Your words and your actions are saying two different things," she giggled.

"That's because I figured this position would be best for getting you bothered. I'm not moving again until I drive you crazy."

"You did that a long time ago."

The two quit talking in favor of kissing, and subconsciously shifting against each other. "Quit teasing," she panted.

"I'll tease you all I want," he replied, but moved to slip her pants off of her. She set to work on his clothes as well. As his efforts revealed more of her body, he became enthralled with the idea of getting her pregnant. When he saw her flat belly he imagined it round and swollen; her breasts, he imagined full of milk. He tweaked one nipple, and imagined the droplets of white liquid that would roll out. He was nearly desperate for her, but he needed to make sure she was feeling the same, needed to make sure she wouldn't ask him to pull out when it was time.

Now both fully naked, they continued to rub against each other, whimpering. Then Marinette bucked. It was an involuntary action brought about by her arousal, and the action caught the tip of Adrien's penis inside of her. They stared into each other's eyes.

"I'm doing it," he told her. She nodded. He slid deeper inside of her, and when he found her hymen, pushed straight through it. From there, nothing was stopping them. Adrien was proud of himself for getting inside without any sort of protection. They kept it up until they both felt a new feeling bubbling up inside them, then they both came.

"This will help," Adrien slipped a pillow underneath the sleeping girl's hips, to influence his sperm to swim deeper into her womb. They'd both passed out after their first orgasms, but while Adrien woke up a few minutes later, Marinette remained asleep on her lounge. He'd carried her up to her bed and propped her up with pillows, hoping she'd stay asleep all night. If she got up any time soon, his fluids would drip out of her and she'd realize what they'd done. If she didn't get up until morning, or at least several hours, the residue would have become less liquidy and wouldn't come out until she went to the bathroom. He knew that she knew he'd dumped a load inside of her, but if nothing prompted her to, she wouldn't drag up the memory until she needed an explanation for how she was pregnant.

* * *

When Adrien next saw her, Marinette was blushing and even regressed to stuttering a little, but seemed generally happy, and not at all inclined to avoid him. He guessed that she remembered the sex, but not specific details about it, she probably wouldn't be too happy with him if did.

A few weeks after, nearly a week after when the older Marinette said her younger self's period was supposed to be, Marinette came to school in tears - she looked scared. Adrien thought he knew what this was about. Suspicions only deepened when he heard her tell Alya "Thanks, but I can't tell you yet." Then she told him, "Adrien, we _really _have to talk."

Adrien followed her to a quiet area along the side of the school, where she dried her tears, and turned to face him. "P-please don't hate me," she started. The tears threatened to return.

Adrien reached out to dry her tears. "How could I hate you?"

"Because what I'm about to say could majorly complicate our relationship. I'm p-p-p-"

"Pregnant?" he guessed.

Marinette nodded. "I'm so sorry!"

"Why are you sorry?" he cuddled her to his chest. "I imagined that if this sort of thing were to happen, I'd be the one having to apologize to you."

"You mean, you already considered the possibility of me getting pregnant?" she sniffed.

"Yes, actually, you might want to sit down. I have something very important to tell you."

Adrien considered how he might tell her that he tricked her and got her pregnant on purpose without making her furious with him. His prospects were looking bleak when a familiar figure approached in a hooded sweatshirt. "I'll handle this," she pulled the sweatshirt over her head.

Marinette gasped, "you're me!"

"I am. Don't blame Adrien for this, this was your idea - well, it was mine, but you know what I mean. In a few years, you're going to become very ill. I'm afraid your last year of high school and your first year out of it are going to be miserable. You'll make an almost complete recovery, but the side effects of the treatment will leave you barren. I went through all of that already, but I want a baby so badly that I would be willing to go through it all again. That's why you have to have a baby now, while you still can. It's so that I can share your future, and you don't have to share mine. We've become slightly different people, but when I touch you, we'll become one person again. Ready?"

Both Marinettes put out a hand toward each other. ET phone home. (sorry) The instant they touched, the time traveler was gone, and Marinette had a vivid memory of Adrien as a grown man, dead on the floor, his throat slashed, and a bloody knife in her own hand. She remembered he'd asked her to do that to him, on the condition that she would use the power it granted her to rewrite their history and bring him back. She'd succeeded. He was alive and standing right next to her, a teenager again. He was no longer her husband, but she knew it was only a matter of time before they were married again. Best of all, in this life, they were going to raise a family.


	5. Timeloops: branch 1 of 2

Author's note: I've heard there are two different kinds of time travel stories. The last chapter dealt with the kind where the future is changed as a result. For the next two chapters, let's examine realities where time travel does not change, but repeats itself to get the same results every time.

* * *

"We lost them!" Ladybug panted, locking the door. "Those mobs of fans can be crazy!"

"You're telling me?" Chat asked, drawing the curtains shut over the window they had climbed through. "They are going to catch us detransforming one of these days, it's just a matter of time."

"Not if I can help it. This hotel room the mayor lets us use is secure, they're not getting in. The real problem is whether we'll be able to get out of here before we're forced to reveal our identities to each other."

"That's not such a bad thing, is it, Bugaboo?" Chat asked, "We -" Chat stopped and swiveled his ears, hearing voices in a corner of the room.

"No way am I staying here for this, I don't want to see any of it. I'll be back in a few hours to pick you two up."

"Okay, thank you, Bunnix."

"Bunnix?" Ladybug whispered. "I thought a couple of fanatics from outside must have somehow got in, but it sounds like we have visitors from the future, but I can't see anything in here, can you, Chat?"

Before Chat could answer, someone flipped on the lights. "The boys might be able to see in the dark, but I can't any better than you can, and I'd like to be able to see." There was Ladybug, another one, with a second Chat Noir by her side.

"What's the matter?" The original Ladybug asked them. "Why did you come?"

"We knew that today was the day you would be revealing yourselves to each other, and that when we were in your place, we were visited by our future selves," future Chat explained. "I've always been glad for their intervention, it was a very _hard _experience for me."

Future Ladybug gave him a smug sideways look, which the younger duo couldn't understand. Why were they acting like there was an inside joke hidden within that?

"We're finally going to get to know each other?" Chat asked.

"You two are going to get to know each other very well."

"But, couldn't that be dangerous?" Ladybug asked.

"Depending on how you look at it, yes, we engage in high risk behavior all the time. It looks like your transformation is seconds away from wearing off."

Ladybug's hands flew up to her face, suddenly panicking, realizing her older self was right. There was nothing she could do, though. She turned back into Marinette.

"Marinette?" Chat asked.

Marinette turned her head to say something to him only to see him replaced with her crush. "Adrien?"

"Now that that's out of the way," future Ladybug told them, "we've got a pretty big reveal for you ourselves. Spots off." Future Ladybug dropped her transformation, making her situation apparent. More than just her identity, the magic had been hiding that she was heavily pregnant.

"We've started working on a litter!" future Chat proclaimed proudly, "but it's going to take awhile since we're stuck being humans that typically have one at a time and take most of a year to do that."

Future Marinette rubbed her belly, smiling. "It's been thirty-eight weeks now, the due date is in just two more. To think we've come back to the day I conceived this bundle of joy, only now we get to play the opposite role.

Adrien gulped, Marinette gasped and stumbled backward. "What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Just what it sounds like, I'll never forget the feeling of having my hand on my older self's belly, feeling her fetus wriggling under my fingers, almost ready to be born, and knowing I was conceiving the exact same baby in that very moment."

Adrien felt an involuntary stirring in his groin. "So this is what he meant by a _hard _experience," he muttered to himself.

"Hold on," Marinette panicked. "You know that I've fantasized of this sort of thing, but you also know I'm not ready for this."

"I do remember feeling that way, but trust me, you cannot afford to feel uncomfortable with one another. Allow us to show you how good it can feel to be together, physically, mentally, and emotionally."

Future Chat dropped his transformation and both time travelers began to undress themselves unhurriedly, much to the shock of their former selves.

"One thing you're going to learn about pregnancy is that it creates a pretty constant desire to reaffirm your bond, if you know what I mean. It's easy enough to deal with at first, but this growing belly gets in the way and we've become limited on what positions we can use. At this point I can pretty much only take it from behind, so I suggest you two hold off on trying it for a few months so you don't get sick of it ahead of time." Future Marinette knelt on the floor at the edge of the bed, knees spread apart, grasping the bed frame for support. Future Adrien knelt behind her, and after verifying her body was sufficiently prepared, he entered her.

Adrien and Marinette were kept a captive audience, capable of leaving the room, but fearful who was waiting for them outside, as well as being morbidly interested in watching copies of themselves going at it wildly. Marinette's hand brushed Adrien's and he grabbed it, the two seeking comfort in each other even though touching each other was what they in the moment most feared.

Finally, future Marinette hit her release, while future Adrien looked like he could have gone over the edge with her, but for some reason didn't. He pulled out of her, still throbbing. "Normally I do cum inside of her, after all, she is already pregnant, but we agreed today that we didn't want to make a mess. Plus, we don't do this very often." Future Marinette had turned around and taken his sex organ into her mouth, swallowing his ejaculation when he did let it go.

Future Marinette got up from the floor and sat on the edge of the bed. "Both of you, come here."

Adrien and Marinette aproached cautiously, Adrien especially, nervously about getting that close to a naked female. "Feel my baby," she instructed them. Both did without question, deep inside, they knew they wanted to.

"Now it's your turn." Future Marinette took hold of Marinette and started undressing her. Marinette just allowed it to happen in a sort of stunned stupor. Future Adrien grabbed Adrien and did the same thing. Even if their minds were being left behind, their bodies were responding. Adrien's underwear pitched a tent, Marinette's were soaked. These last two garments were soon discarded as well.

Future Marinette pinned Marinette's hands behind her back, and pressed the palms up against her own womb. "Relax. Focus on feeling the baby. Think about how you're finally going to have the child of the boy you love living inside of you." Future Marinette wrapped one leg around each of Marinette's legs and spread them for her.

"Ready?" Future Adrien asked, nudging him toward where their girls were leaned back against the edge of the bed. "She's ready, so take her." From behind he wrapped a hand around Adrien's penis and guided it toward Marinette.

The two mated, pressed together between their future selves. As they felt their combined orgasms approaching, the two leaned in to kiss each other, completely of their own will. Adrien's hands slipped around Marinette's waist and felt their future child as well. The child wiggled and sent both of them into their climax.

"Congratulations," future Adrien purred. "Now you two have a kitten on the way."

* * *

Adrien and Marinette lay together in the hotel bed, still connected at the crotch. The other two hand left them to go back to the future, leaving them to travel into the future the long way. "I can't believe we really did that," Marinette laughed. "Are we really going to be them and do all of that to our past selves nine months from now?"

"Of course we will," Adrien promised. "This is our future. It just takes a little bit of prompting to want to start a litter."


	6. Timeloops: branch 2 of 2

(For this story, I wanted there to be a girl older than the typical three, Emma, Louis, and Hugo. I picked the name Horatia because it means timekeeper. The last name, I just picked from a list of common French last names.)

"I cannot stress how lucky we are to have real time travelers grace the halls of our school. You kids had better appreciate them and learn all you can while they are here." The teacher gushed.

"Are you really part of the superhero team?" A student asked the woman in front of the class.

"I am, but it's really not as impressive in my time as it is right now. In the future, we're contracted to have superheroes patrolling the city at all hours, but we still have normal careers to attend to, as well as rest and leisure time. To accommodate, our staff has grown to upwards of 100 members."

"Dude, are you okay?" Nino was a little creeped out by how intently his best friend was watching the woman from the future. "I understand she's attractive, but you have to remember that even if she looks older, she's actually about fifteen years younger than us. Besides, if I'm not mistaken, I think I heard her mention being married."

Adrien shook his head vigorously, snapping himself out of his trance. "You're misreading me, that's not at all what I'm feeling when I look at her. It's just... there's this strong emotion that I can't quite interpret myself. Even if I've barely know her, I can't help but love her, in a way I've never experienced before. It feels the most like the way I love my parents, but inside out... and backward. Plus, the way she smiles, it's making me think of someone else, but I'm not sure who."

"Aaaaah!" The boys' attention was drawn out of their private conversation as one of the child visitors broke away from his group, making a clumsy attempt to get up the steps into the ranks of the class. In fact this toddler, looking to be around a year and a half, maybe two, seemed to be headed straight for Marinette. Marinette looked wide eyed and the child, who latched himself onto her leg.

"Hugo!" the woman scolded gently, going to get the boy. "Please don't bother Mam- er, Marinette."

"That boy looks a lot like you," someone noticed. "Is he yours?"

"No," the woman shook her head. "I do have a little boy of my own his age, but this is actually my little brother."

"Wow, then your family is very spread out!"

"Yes," she agreed. "I was an early child for my parents. Too early in fact. I admire them for it, but they sacrificed too much to have me at their young age. I can't expect them to do it again. They already told me that it was during this visit that they found out I was their daughter, so I've decided, this time, I won't tell them who they are. That way they'll never feel obligated to conceive me, and I'll painlessly fade from existence. Everyone would be better off if Louis were their first born, and Emma could be their eldest daughter."

* * *

"Horatia, wait!" Adrien ran after the woman. The entire day she was visiting his school, he hadn't so much as said a word to the woman, but now, he had to know if what he was thinking was true. All the other time travelers had already passed back through the gate into their own time, and she was about to follow. If he let her go with out talking to her, he had a gut feeling that might be as good as killing her.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I have to know. What is your last name?"

"Durand," she answered, then laughed, "but you wanted to know my maiden name, didn't you?"

Adrien nodded.

"Tough, you're one of the two people I want least to have that information."

"But I already know. You were born an Agreste, weren't you? That's why I feel this way toward you. It's the paternal love a father can't help but have for his daughter. Why do you want me to give up that bond?"

"You can still have that special bond - with my brothers and sister - when you're actually ready to be a father. I'm an anomaly, you and Maman would have never chosen to have a baby at this age - except you met me from a previous time loop, and decided it was your duty to give life to me again. If you just let the window of conception pass without touching my mother, my existence will become impossible, and the knowledge that I ever existed will fade from your memory. Can't you understand? You _won't _miss me. I know I can't change your mind now that you know, but luckily you don't know who my mother is, and she doesn't even know herself, so there's nothing you can do to stop my existence from being erased. Goodbye."

"You're wrong!" Horatia was once again stopped from going through the time gate by another voice calling out to her. "I followed you here too. If Adrien can instinctually know that you are our daughter, don't you think the same thing would happen to me too? I feel the same way he does. We're your parents, we'd rather die ourselves than lose you."

"Marinette..." Adrien murmured the name of the girl who had appeared out of nowhere to stand beside him. He realized it now, the familiar smile he'd seen on Horatia earlier was Marinette's smile. Neither one was smiling now. Mother and daughter locked horns ferociously in a battle of wills, they seemed an even match for each other, but it was two against one. Adrien had no doubts about taking Marinette's side.

"I get the idea this rotation is no different than any other time," Adrien told his daughter. "You undervalue how much we love you, so you probably try to erase yourself every time, but every time our hearts tell us who you really are. Of course there's a certain price we have to pay for for parenthood, but don't even begin to think you aren't worth it. In fact, we're being given the bargain of a lifetime if we can even hope to have a daughter as strong and compassionate as you. Knowing you would give your life for our happiness only makes us value you more."

Horatia stood with her mouth open, tears threatening to roll down her face. "I never wanted my life to end here, I just thought it would be selfish of me to ask you to keep me alive. I'm sorry misjudged you so badly. Thank you so much for being my parents, thank you for my life."

"Don't worry about it. You _will _be born on time, that is a promise."

After a heartfelt goodbye, Adrien and Marinette watched as their daughter finally did disappear through the gate back into her time. "I could have never guessed this morning that today would turn out like this," Marinette sniffed. "Now I will never feel complete again until we've had her."

"I know how you feel, but we're going to be fine. We're old enough to get married with parental consent, and her birth date is almost a year from now, we have a few months to prepare for this." Adrien felt a duty to reassure her, even as his own heart raced.

"I promised her we'd have her, and I want to, but what if we make a mistake? What if we have the wrong baby? I could get pregnant with a sibling to her, or even, a baby that was half her! I've only got one egg per cycle, so we should be able to pick the right one, but we have to time it perfectly or a different sperm could win the race!"

"Stop, whatever we chose to do, it's probably the exact same thing we've decided on in past timelines, and we had her successfully those times, it will happen again."

And so the couple continued to plan how they would prepare for their first child, and even as they finished, somewhere in a distant timeline, they were starting the same conversation just a few minutes behind. So be sure, at any given moment, there is a somewhere where they continue to hold this discussion to this day. And they lived happily ever after.


	7. Kittens

Notice: If you post a review as a guest, I might not be able to read it. I get both types of reviews, guest and member, forwarded to my email, but when I open the app right after an email arrives, I only see member reviews. Some of the guest reviews have showed up in the app days after I was notified of them, and only then can I properly read them. Most of the time I can at least read it in my email, but the most recent one was too long and was cut off. I don't know if logging in from a computer would make a difference, but I don't have access to that at the moment.

Now, on to what you need to know before the story. This one is post reveal and Adrien and Marinette are already dating. This was going to be another two chapter branching path, but the first one would have been so short that I decided to recombine them as daydream and reality.

* * *

"I would like to have a kitten," Adrien commented, watching a stray cat guide her little ones out into the world for the first time. His friends nodded and smiled, thinking they knew what he meant, while his girlfriend - who was sure she was the only one who truely knew what he meant - became lost in her thoughts.

_"Then I'm an animal in heat, but just for you." She got down onto all fours on the ground. "Come over here and breed me."_

_Seeing the girl offer herself to him so willingly evoked a primal response in Adrien. He growled as he dropped to the side of his mate, hesitating with a finger tucked inside her pants, just long enough for her to have the chance to revoke her invitation. When she made no protest he ripped away their clothes and any semblance of civility as he mounted her and mated like a wild animal. He'd made gentle love to his girl in the past, and would again in the future, but this was not the time._

_Only when they were done did they start to wake back up into reality and realize they were not alone._

_"All that because he wanted a kitten?"_

_"Mmmhmm," Marinette adjusted her pants, sealing the majority of her mate's sperm inside her while deciding to ignore the bits that seeped out and gummed up her underwear. She could wash it out at home, and for the time being, it was something she would have to bear. "Adrien identifies as part cat, so kittens mean a lot more to him than to most people. What kind of significant other would I be if I didn't understand that?"_

"Marinette? Hello... are you with us girl?"

"Oh, um, what was it you said?" Marinette responded to her friend, embarrased by the scene that had just played through her head. Just because she was in a relationship with the boy she liked, it didn't mean she could let her hormones run completely uncontrolled. But... he was sort of the one who started it with that comment, and she wanted to do something in response. She had an idea.

* * *

When Chat got to his girlfriend's bedroom for their scheduled nocturnal visit, he expected he'd find her on her balcony waiting as she usually did, or perhaps just inside the hatch, ready to open up when he knocked. This time she was neither place, and when he let himself in through the unlocked hatch, he found that she wasn't anywhere within sight in her room. "Oh, Marinette ~" he called.

"Chat, shh," Marinette emerged from a sheltered nook in her closet, cupping something in her hands.

"What is it?" he asked, trying to get a better look.

"Be careful of your claws," she told him, and placed it in his outstretched palms. "I know this isn't what you meant when you said you wanted a kitten, but it would be my responsibility to give you one, and I'm just not ready, so this will have to do."

The tiny black kitten opened his mouth in a silent mew of protest, not wanting to be moved from his warm nest in Marinette's hands. He just as quickly decided that Chat made just as comfortable of a nest and drifted off into a state of simi-sleep. Chat shook his head, he knew kittens this small weren't being sold in any pet store, it didn't even have its eyes open! "I didn't expect you to be ready any time soon, I was just dreaming. Where did you get this one?"

"I went around to a few animal shelters looking for a kitten. I eventually found out about a mother who died of birth complications two days ago along with most of her litter. Two of them survived, but the shelter was short on volunteers, and said they would have to euthanize the kittens if no one took them."

At the mention of another kitten her boyfriend's head shot up, a pleading look in his eyes. "Please tell me you took both of them!"

Marinette momentarily retreated back into her closet, then returned with a tabby kitten. "I have his sister right here. So," she teased "this is our first time as parents."

"My first two children..." Chat breathed, gazing lovingly at both kittens. Marinette couldn't decide if he was joking or not.

"You know, raising kittens from this age isn't going to be easy. They still need to be fed multiple times a night, and they need regular supervision, but it's less intense and a much shorter time commitment than a human baby. This is practice. If we do a good job parenting together, then we might be ready once these two are grown."

"Really?" That was actually pretty soon. He knew cats could be considered mostly mature around six months, and at most a year.

"Yes. I know you could be a good father, Adrien, but prove it to me."

* * *

"Have you considered having your cats spayed and neutered?" The vet asked. "These two are six months old now, so you could be having kittens soon if you're not careful."

"Um, can you give us a minute to talk about it?" Marinette asked.

"All right, I still have to look at their skin and fur samples under a microscope, so I'll go do that."

As soon as the vet was out of the room, Marinette blushed and looked to the floor. "I think it's time we stopped thinking of them as our babies," she admitted, "and remember that they _are _cats."

"I suppose... if we let them continue going outside they'd end up doing what cats in the wild do, and by our own logic we would be grandparents - we can't let that happen, but is it really right to force this on them like this? We can just keep them indoors for a few months and decide later."

"Adrien, they're _cats_, they don't really understand what siblings are, they see each other as just another cat. We can't keep both an unfixed male and female in my house. The only other option is if you take one of them home with you, but I don't think your father would allow it."

"But, if we have them fixed, I'll have to stop thinking of them as my kids, and if I stop thinking of them as my kids, I've lost the family I made with you."

"They'll always be our kids, Adrien, just, kids who are cats. Maybe this is a sign, tonight we should start working on having a baby who is the same species as us."

"Sounds good to me."


	8. Black Cat

"Curse you." When helping her parents in the bakery, Marinette would occasionally trip and drop a customer's pastry on the floor. She would apologize and get a new one, and the customer would usually be quite nice about it, but not this time. The moment the pastry hit the floor, Marinette was given no chance to make it right. The moment those words were uttered, she could feel herself shrinking away, becoming low to the floor.

From her place over by the cash register, Sabine heard the exchange. She looked over in time to see her daughter becoming smaller and morphing shape into a cat, with black fur so sleek it shone a dark blue. The clothes Marinette had been wearing, including a pair of black earrings, lay in a pile around her paws. "Marinette!" Sabine came running over "what did you do to her?"

"I'm teaching her a lesson in responsiblity. Before you say anything, I know the girl

didn't do it on purpose, but she was careless. This will teach her to be more careful in the future."

"And what exactly is she supposed to be careful of now that she's a cat?"

"She could be careful of all the feral males who would love to mate with her, but it might be in her best interest if she doesn't. My goal is to teach her a lesson, I left a way for her to become human again. If she delivers a litter of kittens the spell will be broken as soon as the last of the afterbirth is out, but she might be reluctant to return. Her children won't be able to go with her after all, not if their father is a cat."

Marinette slunk off to the side of the room, scared and confused. She could hear fear and some anger in her mother's voice, but she couldn't understand her words. The language she knew she should know made strange noises in her feline ears.

At some point Tom came out of the kitchen to see what was going on and repeatedly scratched his head while talking to his wife, but must have ultimately believed her, because he bent down before the cat and asked a one word question that must have been how her cat ears picked up "Marinette?"

She meowed, corroborating her mother's story as best she could. Her father kept talking to her in a soothing tone while her mother made a phone call. Soon the police showed up, but by that time the "witch" as Marinette decided to think of her, was already gone. The police looked at the cat and shook their heads. They weren't buying her parents' story. After the police left, Tom went back to the kitchen, while Sabine petted Marinette and cried.

Marinette meowed and rubbed her head on Sabine's hand, as concerned for her mother as she was for herself. If her mother were to become an akuma now, there would be nothing she could do to help her.

* * *

Chat Noir followed the sound of the screams toward the source of the Akuma. It seemed to be pretty near his school. He'd had a hard time getting away from home unnoticed, so he expected Ladybug to already be there, but she wasn't. Instead it was Rena Rouge and Carapace who came running to him over the rooftops. "Chat! There you are! Ladybug has been compromised, her kwami brought us our miraculouses."

"Tikki?" Chat asked, "remembering the time he and his lady had gotten their kwamies mixed up.

Tikki answered for herself. "Yes, I'm here. There's no time to worry about Ladybug, you need to defeat the akuma. I'm no good in the fight, but I can purify the akuma. Just bring me the item and break it in front of me."

"I managed to talk to the akuma victim briefly before Hawkmoth took complete control of her," Rena explained. "Her name is Sabine Cheng, she's upset because someone cursed her daughter and turned her into a cat, and the police wouldn't believe it happened."

"I've always wondered if Marinette was a cat person," Chat mused.

* * *

After returning Sabine to her pre-akumatized state. Chat released his transformation in an alley near the bakery. "It's curious," he told Plagg. The first time I met Tikki it was right after I'd been hanging out ar Marinette's house, and as soon as Marinette is turned into a cat Ladybug doesn't show up? I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but there seems to be a connection between Marinette and Tikki."

As soon as Adrien stepped out of the alleyway onto the main street, he was nearly bowled over by Alya. "Adrien, there you are! I knew you would show up when you heard Marinette was in danger. Since the police aren't doing it, you're going to help Nino and me find out what happened to Marinette. With her skillset, the woman who did this probably makes her living as some kind of mystic, so I've made a list of self proclaimed fortune tellers, psychics, and various types of magic users in the area. Here's list of the ones I want you to investigate. If they don't match the description Marinette's parents gave, go ahead and ask if they know anyone who does. If you find someone who you think might be the one, text me and we'll figure out what to do next." With that, Alya stormed off to get started on her own list, without asking if Adrien had any questions."

"Okay... sure."

* * *

Marinette hadn't been out of the house in days. The world was scary through the eyes of a cat, or at least for a cat who was used to being human. Her parents seemed to be concerned by the dangers as well. She could tell because they'd bought her a collar. The collar sometimes made her neck itch, but she understood the precaution. She didn't know how long she was going to remain a cat, and she might for some reason need to go outside. If she did, and couldn't find her way back home, then she would have no way to ask for directions. In that event, it would be useful to have her home address and phone number written on the tag around her neck.

She heard someone open the door, that would be Alya. Alya had been visiting her every day after school sometimes with Nino and/or Adrien. It was nice to know her friends still cared about her, even in the state she was in. This time there was only one set of footsteps, so she expected Alya to be alone. She wasn't, in her arms she carried a golden yellow cat with green eyes.

Marinette was a little nervous, but curious too. She hadn't had a good experience with other neighborhood cats since she'd become one herself. She'd thought that just maybe, since she'd lost the ability to talk to humans, that she might be able to talk to other cats. She quickly learned, however, that there was a language barrier between them. Listening to humans speak was like listening to a radio tuned to the wrong frequency. Most of it was unintelligible garbling, but when she could make out a word, she knew people were speaking her language. The cats' tongue was completely different. When she'd first tried to introduce herself, she could only assume she'd been catcalled. One of the males had said something to her and began walking in her direction. He'd seemed friendly enough at first and she'd allowed him to sniff her, then he'd tried to mount her. Marinette had whirled around and bitten him before her mind had even processed what whas happening. The tomcat had backed off a little, a confused look on his face, like he couldn't understand why the female he'd just met wouldn't allow him to mate with her. Marinette hadn't waited to see if he was going to make another attempt on her, and had run back inside as fast as she could.

Now Marinette was under the impression that any tomcat, even the genuinely friendly ones, expected to be allowed to mate with whomever they wanted whenever they pleased. Because of that, Marinette was wary of her visitor, but also hoped he would be better behaved since he had been hand picked by Alya. She trusted her best friend wouldn't allow her to be raped in her own home.

The golden tomcat stalked over to her and sniffed her. That made her tense, that was the same way the other cat had started, but still, she refrained from clawing him. Next he licked the top of her head, and to her surprise, it felt quite nice. She'd been learning to bathe herself as a cat, but none of the places her tongue couldn't reach ever seemed to quite get clean. She closed her eyes as he lay down beside her and made a thorough job of washing her ears, maybe he wasn't so bad. Eventually he quit licking her and rested his head on his paws. Marinette thought it would be the polite thing to do if she returned the favor and washed his ears as well. He seemed to quite enjoy it, and purred heartily as she ran her tongue over his ears. It was he who finally decided she'd washed his ears enough and nuzzled his head into her neck before getting up. She wasn't concerned about what he was doing until she felt his breath on the base of her tail. He was sniffing her vent. That could be a friendly gesture among dogs, but she didn't think cats did it unless - far more tentatively than the first male she'd dealt with, he nonetheless tried to mount her.

Marinette freed herself from under him and turned to face him. She'd claw him, but this time she was a little worried that maybe she'd been the one to unintentionally send mixed messages. She didn't know cat culture, maybe grooming each other was part of a mating ritual and she'd just agreed to have kittens with him before backing out last minute when he tried to seal the deal. Maybe she could still trust him, but she had to clear up their little misunderstanding. She hissed and thrashed her tail in warning.

The tomcat wasn't taking no for an answer. He apparently believed the tongue bath was more than enough to romance her, and he believed that she owed him the opportunity to mate. Feeling hurt and betrayed, Marinette looked to Alya for help. Where was she in all of this? Alya was barely watching them at all, most of her attention was on her phone.

The tomcat lunged and Marinette ran, she didn't know how it had come to this, male cats aparenly thought queens were good for breeding and nothing else. She ran blindly out the door and into the streets, they weren't as scary anymore, not when her own house wasn't safe. Her parents came out of the bakery to see what was the matter, but she couldn't stop, not when she was being pursued. She ran until she hit a dead end, and in the time it took her to decide if she should go left or right, someone pounced on her. At first she thought he must have caught up to must have caught up to her, but then she saw swirls of gray and brown out of the corner of her eye. There were two of them, both from the group she'd run into on her balcony. The gray one was on top of her now, while the brown one, the first tomcat to ever try to mount her, looked like he was about to try swatting the gray cat off of her. She hoped he would before the gray tomcat did anything irresistible, try as she might, she couldn't get him off of her. Was her first sexual partner really going to be a feral cat?

Suddenly, there was a furious yowl and the gold cat from earlier ripped the gray one off of her back. The brown one tried to take that as an opportunity to take his place, but Marinette wasn't pinned down any longer, she could fight! She scratched and bit, and recieved in turn, but eventually he decided it wasn't worth it and ran away right around the time the golden tomcat also sent the gray one running away. Marinette was exhausted and she was bleeding, at some point her opponent's focus had shifted away from breeding and onto getting revenge for the wounds he had recieved, and thought Marinette had won the fight, he had certainly accomplished that second goal.

The golden tomcat padded over to her and lapped gently at one of her wounds. Marinette flinched, she'd forgotten he was still there. She had no energy left to resist him if he tried anything, but she thought that maybe this cat was enough of a gentleman not to put the moves on a queen when she was injured. She was wrong, slowly, careful not to put any pressure on her wounds, he mounted her. Marinette wondered how she had gotten into such a pitiful situation that she had no choice but to lie there and take it when a cat was having sex with her. Even with his apparent efforts to be gentle, he finished quickly and slipped out of her, moving to lay next to her and snuggle against her, purring. She was somewhat surprised he didn't run off after he'd got what he wanted. If she chose to ignore the undesirable forwardness he seemed to share with all males of his species, he really was a sweet guy. His green eyes, she realized, even sort of reminded her of Adrien. If she were truly a cat at heart, she'd probably have a pretty bad crush on him. She didn't even know if cats as a general rule had cruses, but she knew she would. Exhausted, she fell asleep.

* * *

No real surprise, Marinette found out she was expecting. No tests were available to her, but she had an instinct about it even before she could feel grape-sized lumps when washing her abdomen. That day she'd been woken up from her sleep when she'd been picked up by animal services. They'd taken her back to what looked like a vet's office where they wrapped up her wounds, as well as the wounds of the golden tomcat, whom she'd actually been glad to see was still with her, but that was the last time she'd seen him. The people in the vet's office took one look at her collar, and called her parents to pick her up. She was relieved to be home, but she couldn't stop thinking about him, especially since she found out she was pregnant with his kittens. The shelter had only let her go so easily because she had a collar, she worried what his fate could have been. Hopefully he'd been adopted and not put down, or maybe it was one of those neuter and release programs that she'd heard about. She definitely wished that on the two who had tried raping her in the alleyway, but when it came to the golden tomcat she was confused, she didn't know what she wished his fate to be. Then, after about a month, he showed up, meowing at the door. 'Typical cat,' she thought 'leaving for weeks and then wanting to be welcomed back like nothing has happened.' Then she noticed a scar running along beneath his vent where is testicles had been. It looked like she was probably right about the neuter and release program. She didn't know how long they'd held him after the operation, or for that matter, before it. It was possible he'd come back as soon as he was able. Maybe this was for the better, if his drive to breed had been taken along with his equipment, maybe he'd settle down and help her raise the kittens he'd already sired.

He seemed intent on doing just that. He followed her everywhere around the house, protecting and pampering her at every chance he got. Her parents were allowed to touch her without him complaining, but any time a customer came in to buy bread, he would place himself between her and them with a hiss. He groomed her obsessively, and paid special attention to her abdomen, as though he wanted to try washing the kittens through her belly. The only time he disappeared for more than ten minutes he returned with a fresh dead mouse. When she refused to eat his offering, he ate it himself and didn't leave her side that long again.

She hardly ever went up to her old bedroom anymore. Not only was it becoming increasingly difficult to climb the stairs with her sagging belly, but he would always follow her up there and meow at her pictures of Adrien until she felt she might go insane. Did he sense the feelings she had held for the boy? Was he jealous? There was no reason for him to be. She would always hold a special place in her heart for Adrien, but she'd given up on ever pursuing those feelings. She doubted if she would ever be human again, and even if she did, nothing would be the same after she had been pregnant by another, even if another was a cat. Besides, Adrien had apparently abandoned her, he'd come to see her a few times, so she knew he knew, but now she hadn't seen him since before the golden tomcat showed up. No, this cat was very good to her and she'd come to accept this cat as her mate, and the only way to keep her mate from whining was to stay out of her bedroom. But she was homesick for the room where she had so many good memories from her human days, so heavy with kittens, at almost two months along, she struggled up the stairs once again. Her mate leaned against her shoulder, supporting her weight, and doing his best to help her ascend the steps. This time, when he saw the pictures, he did something different. He jumped up onto her sewing table and from there stood on his hind legs to pull one of the photos off of the corkboard. He jumped down and placed the picture on the ground, then sat behind it. He looked from her, to the picture, and back again. He was trying to tell her something. She took a closer look. It wasn't just his eyes that reminded her of Adrien, it was his everything. He was truly Adrien if Adrien were a cat. Could it be? Was Adrien a cat now? If the feline in front of her was truly another human turned cat, maybe they would be able to talk to each other and understand. "Adrien?" she tried to say, but only meowed.

Maybe it was just her imagination, but she thought he looked pleased with her for finally putting it all together. Then she remembered, it was Alya who had brought this cat, she should know where he came from. Marinette had to find a way to ask Alya if her suspicions were true.

Alya still visited whenever she could, which wasn't every day, but was most days. When Marinette saw her again, she brought the picture to Alya, then looked back at her mate and back at Alya. Alya looked pleased as well. She grinned, nodded, and pointed at the picture, then pointed to the golden tomcat and gave a thumbs up. It had been said in enough ways that Marinette could be sure she was understanding correctly, the golden tomcat _was _Adrien. Her heart fluttered with rekindled emotion she'd been trying to forget. He had fought tooth and nail for the right to be with her, she never realized she was that important to him. She couldn't be sure, but she wondered, had he even gotten himself turned into a cat on purpose just to be with her? He'd put himself into harm's way, and even allowed himself getting neutered just to protect her. In that moment she felt overwhelmingly proud to be carrying his litter, now the only children he would ever be able to have. She'd thought she didn't even want him at first, but now she felt like she owed him, and could never pay him back.

* * *

Marinette crept into the living room, wincing in pain. She knew she was in labor, and the residual human parts of her brain thought she should go get help, but her cat instincts told her she needed to go through this alone. She compromised with herself, deciding she would call for help if it felt like something was wrong. Her cat instincts told her confidently that at the moment there were in fact no complications, and the pain she felt was at an appropriate level for giving birth. She lay down in the middle of the floor and gently lapped at her private parts. She thought she could see the head of a black kitten somewhere deep down her birth canal.

Adrien missed the warm furry body sleeping beside him, sensing her absence even in his sleep, he woke up soon after Marinette left. She was two months and one week pregnant now, for a cat, that meant she should give birth any day. He knew this must be time. He wanted to go look for her, but he didn't think her parents would want to miss this either. He scampered off to their bedroom to wake them.

"Marinette!" By the time the light was flipped on in the living room, the head of the first kitten was almost out. Moments later, Marinette dug her claws into the carpet, and with a final push, her first baby was out. Adrien picked up the kitten gently in his jaws, and was about to move him to his mate's belly to suckle, when the kitten began to rapidly grow and change shape. Adrien hurriedly set the infant on a clean towel that had been laid out in preparation, and watched in open mouthed amazement as his firstborn took the shape of a human. With the first out, it didn't take near as long for Marinette to give birth to the remaining two, who like their brother, shifted into human form as soon as they were out. It was a litter of three; the firstborn and runt were boys, the middle one a girl. Adrien shifted shape as soon as the last kitten was out, and as witch had promised, Marinette did at last, after dispelling all three placentas. Tom and Sabine worked together to wrap each of the babies in a towel, and Adrien took two larger ones to cover Marinette and to try to keep some modesty himself in front of her parents.

"Adrien," she whispered, pleased and almost shocked that her voice worked again. "Did you know this would happen?"

"Yes. That woman told your mother that the spell would be broken if you gave birth. When Alya found out, she hounded me to go after you. She said you wouldn't be able to live with yourself if the kittens were anyone's but mine. We found the woman pretty easily, but I had to antagonize her quite a bit before I got her to curse me. She must have been in a pretty bad mood if she cursed you just for dropping a pastry. She said the kittens wouldn't be able to become human if their father was a cat, but we were hoping she meant if the father was a true cat and not a turned human. Looks like that assumption was correct."

"It's a good thing it was a somewhat small litter," Marinette decided. "We're going to have our hands full with just three. I can't imagine if a larger litter had turned into septuplets! Though, if that had happened, our classmates would be more likely to believe we were turned into cats for awhile. Triplets are unusual, but not unheard of, everyone's going to think I was already six or seven months pregnant when I disappeared."

"Let them," Adrien shrugged, "I wouldn't deny it if you don't. There's no denying we'll have our hands full with three babies, but I think this is the perfect number. It is possible for a cat to have just one or two, especially if it's her first time, but I'm glad you didn't, since I'm no longer able to... uh..."

"Oh, Adrien, I'm so sorry about that!" Marinette exclaimed. "If I hadn't run away from you, you wouldn't have been caught, and - "

"Don't worry about it, you didn't know the terms of breaking the spell, or that it was me. Of course you would run. It wasn't part of the plan, and I admit I was very pissed when it first happened, but after I got back her and found out you were already pregnant, I quit caring almost completely. I'm not the sort of guy who needs his ball sack just to feel good about himself, and I've already got three beautiful children. I don't need them anymore. And if you were feeling sorry for yourself and not for me," Adrien winked, "I'm pretty sure I can still go through at least some of the motions."

"Adrien!"


	9. Stranded: branch 1 of 2

**Trigger Warning - I don't want to spoil anything, but this may be disturbing.**

"The sea's getting a bit rough, the captain says all passengers should get below deck."

"Where is Marinette?"

"Not sure, the last time I saw her, she said the patterns in the waves were inspiring her to draw a new design. It makes sense she would have gone up to the bow of the boat."

"I'll go after her," Adrien offered.

Alya had been about to go herself, but when Adrien said he would, she decided against it. She wasn't going to get in the way of possible alone time between Marinette and her crush. Maybe this field trip, meant for studying marine science, would be the perfect atmosphere for something romantic to happen.

Adrien clung to the guide rail as he made his way to the bow of the boat. It was tough to walk as the wind was getting stronger, but this wasn't something he could just wait out. He had to get Marinette back to the cabin, preferably before rain started coming down. He found Marinette seated at the very front of the boat, her ponytails swaying in the wind as she pinned down the page of her sketchbook with one hand and tried to put her ideas to paper with the other. "Marinette!" he shouted over the wind, even though he was now right next to her. "We need to get to shelter now!"

"You go ahead and go back, I'll be right there," Marinette promised. "I need to copy this pattern before I forget what it looks like."

"Rain is coming," he told her. "If we don't go now the deck will be too slippery to cross safely."

"Okay, I get it," she stood up. "Let's go." A strong gust of wind knocked into her, ripping the sketchbook out of her hand. "No!" she reached out for it, but ultimately grabbed the railing instead, realizing there was nothing she could do as the book fluttered out to sea. "Well, it's gone now," she sighed.

"You're a brilliant artist, Marinette, I know you worked hard on those, but those designs are replaceable as long as you're safe," Adrien assured her. "What I'm worried about is losing you."

Marinette nodded and tightened her grip on the railing, focusing on putting one foot in front of another again the wind. "These are awfully big gaps in the railing, I feel like I could slip right through," she commented.

Adrien grimaced, she might not be exaggerating. Marinette was of delicate stature, and it was easy to imagine the wind picking her up and carrying her away. "Hold on tight," he warned her, "and be very careful. I just felt a raindrop."

As more rain plopped around them, their footing became even more precarious. The boat bounced, wind slammed into them, and now their feet slid every time they took a step. Perhaps most scary of all, the stainless steel railing was become harder to grasp. Then it happened, Marinette's feet were out from under her, her fingers lost contact with the wet metal, and just as she had predicted, she slid easily between the supposed rails off the side of the boat. Adrien felt helpless, it all happened before he could do anything, and by the time he grabbed for her she was already out of his reach. "OVERBOARD!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. The wind whipped away his words, and he doubted anyone had heard. He waited for a few seconds, hoping help would show up, but panicked when he saw Marinette's head go under the water. "NO!" He squeezed between the railings and dropped, not thinking about what he would do once he was in the water. He had to save Marinette! Once he was in the water, however, he felt like he needed someone to save him. He'd thought he was a pretty strong swimmer, he had his own pool after all, but never was pool water this rough. All he could do was fight to keep his own head above the water as the current carried him away. Only once the waves made sure all of his energy was thoroughly sucked out of him did they throw him onto a beach. Feeling the shifting sand under his fingers, he managed to claw his way up the beach to the point he was sure he couldn't be washed back out to sea. Feeling his life was no longer in immediate danger, he slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

Adrien had no idea how long he had been out. It might have been a few hours or maybe even a day, he had certainly felt wiped out enough to sleep that long. His only clues to the time were the hot sun beaming down on him and the fact that his clothes and hair, previously soaked with saltwater, were dry and sticking to his body. He sat up and looked around, his eyes coming to focus on something that made him feel absolutely pathetic. Why was he still alive? Why, when he had failed to save Marinette? Why couldn't he have drowned instead of her? He crawled over and picked up the soggy sketchbook; it fell apart in his hands. Just like his hopes.

Well, now clearly wasn't his intended time to die, so he should probably find himself some food. Only when he'd thought about eating did he realize how hungry he actually was. Next to him was the sea, where there would be fish and probably seaweed. A rich food source if he would have to sustain himself long term, but not the best when what he needed was an immediate burst of energy. Fruit. He was on an island, wasn't he? Where were the fruit trees? He realized that most if not all of the trees around him did have fruit of some sort, but that it was all way above his head. That would be a problem if he didn't have a miraculous. "Plagg, claws out."

Chat used his staff to easily elevate himself to the level of the fruit. He picked one, then tied it into his tail so that his hands were free to hold two more. "Chat!" someone excitedly yelled his name.

Chat hurriedly dropped back to the ground to meet with the other person. He could hardly believe it when Ladybug came running over to him. "Chat! What are you doing here?"

"I jumped off of a boat trying to save a drowning friend, but I couldn't find her and got stranded here." A spark of hope lit inside him, Ladybug never appeared anywhere without saving the day, so maybe she'd done it again. "Have you seen Marinette? Please tell me you saved her!"

Ladybug looked shocked, and then happy. "I suppose you could say that. Yes, I saved her."

"Thank you!" Chat cried in relief. "Where is she?"

Ladybug became serious. "Chat, our situation since the last time we saw each other has drastically changed. I've had a look around this island, and I don't see a way off. There are no signs of people. I thought I was the only one here until you climbed up to where I could see you. Until help arrives, we're going to be depending on each other for our survival. I think it might actually be to our advantage now to know who each other are. So, as the answer to your question, I'm right here. Spots off."

"Marinette!" Chat hugged her, making no effort to disguise tears of joy. "I'm so glad you're okay!" He held onto her for a moment and she let him, then he backed away. "Oh, right, who we are. Well then, claws in."

"You said you _jumped _off of the boat..." Marinette whispered, then started beating her fist against his chest. "Why would you do that, you dumb cat? You were trying to save me; that makes me responsible for dragging you into this situation too, not just myself!"

"Marinette, stop," Adrien grabbed her wrist. "I wouldn't want to be back on that boat right now, not if I had to be there thinking you were dead. I thought that for the first hour or so that I was exploring this island by myself, and it was absolute torture. I'd rather be here here with you and know you're okay." 'Besides,' he asked himself 'didn't you have a daydream about living with her on a tropical island? Be careful what you wish for, it's coming true. If only you could find yourselves a pet hamster this would be perfect.'

Marinette stopped. "You think everyone thinks we're dead? NO! They're going to look for us, we have to believe! Come on, let's figure out what we can use to attract helicopters."

"You changed your tune suddenly, didn't you?" Adrien had to run to catch up with Marinette's sudden burst of energy. "Hadn't you just said we would need to depend on each other to survive? I know for a fact you wouldn't have revealed your identity if you didn't think we'd be here for an extended period of time."

"Do you even want to be rescued?" she asked. "You don't sound like you do."

'Not really,' he thought 'this is pretty close to my fantasy.'

"I _am_ prepared to live here for months. It could take that long for someone to find us. The current took us hundreds of miles away, the fact that we ended up somewhere tropical is proof of that. But, someone will find us, we both have families that love us and won't stop searching. It's our duty to help them in any way we can."

* * *

Adrien was worried that Marinette wouldn't be able to accept their new situation, but after convincing him to help her build and contain a bonfire, she said nothing more about rescue. He was impressed to see her as resourceful in their new surroundings as she was fighting an akuma. He didn't know how they were going to start a fire. In survival stories, someone in the group always conveniently had glasses, which neither of them did, but the special vision she seemed to have tuned in on his ring, which she used to reflect the sun's rays onto the ruined remnants of her sketchbook that had washed ashore with them. The water damaged paper worked well enough as tinder to ignite the sticks and larger logs they had dragged out from between the trees. Now, as long as they didn't forget to feed the fire, they were set.

Marinette also showed him what she had found earlier, right before they reunited, about the time he was figuring out how to harvest fruit. There was a stream, running from their end of the island to the opposite. If they followed it inland for awhile, the salinity level decreased to the point it could be considered fresh water. "It still probably needs to be boiled before we can drink it," she decided, "so we'll have to figure out how to carry it back to the fire for that. Even now, I think it's clean enough that we should try washing our clothes as best we can."

Adrien coughed, there was something plainly wrong with that.

"What? Would you rather have dried salt in your clothes making your skin itch? If we're going to live like this, we're going to see each other a bit. We'll both keep our underwear, and I'll keep my jacket as well. When our outer clothes are dry, we can wear those while we wash the rest."

Adrien nodded, that was practical, but she had to know she was inviting him to think thoughts he'd never thought before... right?

* * *

Over the next several weeks, life on the island grew into a rhythm. Adrien learned that the 'living only on fruit' part of his fantasy gave him terrible diarrhea, so they worked on fleshing out their diet. Actually, they didn't consume much flesh. They became circumstantial pescatarians, eating what they could fish and forage. They decided to risk trying various leaves and tubers as well to see if they might be edible. They treated each new food like they expected it to be poison, holding it to their skin first to make sure it didn't produce a rash, and then sampling a tiny portion and waiting several hours before having more if it didn't make them sick. They knew they were lucky to find several new food sources, and get nothing worse than a few bad belly aches. Aside from a varied menu, they also managed between them to craft a second set of rough, fibrous clothes, a shaky hut, and the beginnings of a paddle boat.

"I feel like I'm getting stir crazy," Marinette confessed. "Now that we've finished building our house and know where to consistently find food, life here is almost too easy."

"I know, if only we had some way to relieve the tension," Adrien commented.

"Are you thinking the same thing I'm thinking?"

"I don't know..." he lied, willing her to say it. If she were the first one to bring up the topic directly, he wouldn't have to feel like such a creep.

"I think you are. The whole time we've been here, I've had a hard time keeping my eyes off you, but every time I look at you, you're trying to pretend you weren't just watching me. I want you to know... if you looked at me as just a s-sex object, I wouldn't be very happy with that, but I know that you care about me. Because I know you care, I wouldn't mind being a sex object to you as well. Who am I kidding, trying to play indifferent? What I mean to say is... I would enjoy it."

"Marinette," Adrien crawled over to her. "Don't talk about yourself that way. You're not a toy, and I don't want you to be. If you're interested, would you instead be my lover?"

"That's the question I was too shy to ask you myself."

"So offering to be friends with benefits is easier than telling me you want to have a relationship?"

Marinette gulped, "Ye-s, but only because it became obvious that you desired me and I didn't think I would be rejected. I couldn't be as sure that you loved me."

"Then let me tell you now, I love you."

"Aren't you going to let me suck you at the same time?" Marinette asked. Their sexually explorative conversation had ended in no more than a make out session, but it only took a few days for them to want to go further. They shyly agreed that maybe oral sex would be a less risky way to get into it. Now Marinette lay with her legs spread, Adrien kneeling in between.

"No, I don't want to be distracted by my own pleasure when I'm trying to focus on you. Just relax. When I'm done, then it's my turn for you to give me a favor. Deal?"

Marinette didn't answer, but nodded as she squeezed her eyes shut. Adrien was already figuring out how to touch her in ways that took her breath away.

* * *

Neither one of them expected they would take terribly long to work their way up to full sex, but their hormones nonetheless drove them to it faster than they anticipated. Locked in the most intimate position for the first time in their lives, Adrien felt a purr rising in his throat. "I've always thought other guys were just being dramatic, but I understand now. It is going to be really hard to pull out."

Marinette thought about it, "If you don't want to, you don't have to."

"I don't think that's a good idea, you could get pregnant."

"I know, but think about it. Way out here, the benefits might outweigh the cost. We've lost the purpose we had in life back home, if we decided to raise a family, that could be our new purpose. I trust you enough to know you'll pull out if I ask you to, but I just realized, I also trust you enough to let you go ahead and impregnate me. You don't have to do it, but it's an option."

* * *

For forty weeks, Adrien did not regret his decision. He didn't regret the feeling of the ultimate act of love, or the look in Marinette's eyes when she realized he really felt that strongly for her. He didn't regret it when Marinette told him she was pretty sure her period would have been there by that point. He didn't regret it when they would both sit and feel her baby bump, in awe of what they had created. He regretted it the moment she went into labor.

"What was I thinking?!" He panicked. "How did I ever think it was a good idea to get you pregnant with no access to medical attention?!" The love of his life was on the ground, in more anguish than he'd ever seen her before, and it was all because of him. Worse yet, he couldn't even do anything for her. Death by childbirth was a real thing, and he was convinced it would make him a murderer who killed with love. Then, their newborn baby cried, Marinette was still breathing, and Adrien's regrets vanished.

"The baby is fine," Marinette panted, a rush of euphoria washing away her pain. "I'm fine too."

Adrien let the tears he was holding back flow free. "I thought I was going to lose you! I was so scared..."

"I was scared too, but I reminded myself, women used to have home births all the time. Yes, there were risks, but most of them made it through all right. Now I've done it once, I should be able to do it again."

"So you're saying you want to have more babies?" He asked, wiggling an eyebrow at her. The playful mood they were making was enough to scare away most of his fears as well.

"I don't want to get pregnant again right away, so let's please be careful, but I can see wanting another baby in the next few years, if you're up to it."

* * *

"This is miserable," Adrien rubbed his eyes, which were watering. "How is Louis doing?"

"I'm worried about him. He's having a hard time breathing, way worse than you or me." Marinette coughed as she spoke. For a couple of months after Louis had been born, other than being homesick for friends and family back in Paris, life had been just about perfect for them. Then came the rainy season, and all three of them got sick. Runny nose, watery eyes, and breathing difficulty for all three of them, but worst of all for Louis. For the first week after the sickness set in, their son was inconsolable, crying endlessly. Then, something horrifying happened, he quit crying. His parents couldn't enjoy the quiet. A baby his age was supposed to cry. Something was terribly wrong.

"I'm going to try getting a few hours sleep now, okay? Wake me when the moon is directly overhead and I'll take a turn sitting with him." Adrien kissed Marinette goodnight and head to their sleeping mat in the corner, but the awakening he would have was the worst he could have feared.

"Adrien! Wake up!" Marinette shook him frantically. "Louis isn't breathing!"

"What! Are you sure?" The news snapped Adrien awake instantly and he went to check the baby with Marinette. The young parents watched in horror as the light faded from their son's eyes.

"No pulse," Adrien checked in vain. "How could this happen to us?"

"My baby is... dead?!" Marinette whispered, choking on the last word. She ran out of their shelter and disappeared down the beach. Adrien wondered where she was running off to at that time of night. He almost followed her, but then decided he should leave her alone. They would each need a while to grieve in their own way.

* * *

Morning came, Marinette had not returned, and Adrien gave up on trying to sleep. It was hopeless anyway, with images of his son's short life playing on loop through his brain. He figured he should look for Marinette. A little alone time might be necessary to sort through their feelings, but ultimately they would need to lean on each other if they were going to make it through. He'd heard of formerly functional marriages that had been torn apart by the loss of a child. His relationship with Marinette had evolved into something a lot like a marriage, he felt it deserved the same amount of effort as one too.

Though he checked all their usual spots, he couldn't find her. Turning into Chat Noir and climbing the tallest trees around couldn't even help him find her. Eventually he gave up and went home, convinced she would be be waiting for him. She wasn't. "Maybe she doesn't want to be found," Adrien mused to the baby, who thought dead, was the only human he had to talk to. "You deserve a proper burial, but first, I _need _to take something to remember you by." Adrien raised a sharpened stone over his son's corpse.

* * *

Over the following weeks, Plagg got tired of Adrien begging for him to talk to him lest he go mad. Plagg declined, stating the boy already had. Adrien believed the behaviors Plagg sited as evidence of insanity were better defined as coping mechanisms that he needed in order to cling to any sanity he had left at all, but Plagg had planted enough doubt for him to not necessarily believe what he thought he saw. It was Marinette, by their old bathing spot at the river, completely naked. He approached, wondering if he was hallucinating. She'd made herself scarce for the past several weeks after all, why would she appear to him now? "Marinette?"

She made eye contact with him and growled, in a way that sounded not hostile, but sexual.

"Be careful, Adrien," Tikki warned from nearby. "I haven't been able to get her to speak since Louis died. It's like she's taken an oath of silence. Do you think you can get through to her?"

"I'm not sure, I hope so." The girl he loved was scaring him now. He hoped her old self was still within her somewhere and could be reached.

Marinette walked over to him and placed her hands on his shoulders, forcing him to the ground with a low growl. She lay him back until his hair was in a pool of shallow water, and the rest of his body was supported on the smooth rocky shore. "Marinette, I miss you, please come home," Adrien told her. She didn't answer him, but instead pulled down his shorts, exposing his penis, which lifted itself up without much coaxing at all. She straddled his legs and took him into her easy, something she'd been able to do ever since being stretched by childbirth. "I have missed this feeling," he groaned, "but do you know what I miss even more? Your voice. Please talk to me." She continued to physically pleasure and psychologically torture him at the same time, bringing him close to an orgasm. "I'm going to cum," he warned her. She responded by slamming her hips into his one last time and holding there. It was the first evidence she even still understood the words he was speaking to her. He realized she was trying to get pregnant again. It gave him hope. Why would she do that unless she was going to come back to him? If that was what they needed to do to move on, he would happily start over with her. He pulled her head down to his and kissed her roughly as he unloaded inside of her. She smiled into the kiss and rubbed her belly, where they both expected their second baby would soon begin to grow. He closed his eyes and put his arms around her. "I love you." He expected her to say it back, she didn't. She got off him and walked back into the jungle, his seamen dripping down her leg. He tried to follow her, but the shorts still bungled around his legs stalled him. By the time he had them pulled up again, she was out of his sight.

* * *

He counted the days that went by without him seeing her. Since she hadn't come home with him after their last mating attempt, he decided she must for some reason be waiting until she knew she was pregnant again. If conception was indeed her motive for going to the river that day, she must have timed it when she knew she was ovulating. Assuming that to be true, he could pinpoint when her period was supposed to be, but the time came and went without him seeing her. Did that mean he had failed? "I think I broke your mother," Adrien told the bone knife in his hand. It was his most prized possession, carved from the femur of his son. As long as he kept the knife with him and used it whenever possible, Louis' spirit would never truly be gone. "But I promise I'm going to make her whole again. She's going to be at her most fertile again in a few days, and I'm going to go hunt her down. Once she's thoroughly knocked up I'll bring her back to camp with me. But, we wouldn't want to go to her empty handed. I know for a fact she doesn't have a fire, I would have seen it, so she hasn't had any cooked food in the last month either. We haven't eaten meat, other than fish, since we've been here either. Let's see if we can get ahold of something."

* * *

(Let's say that in the distant past sailors landed on this island but moved on. Some of the livestock they kept for food escaped, and their descendants live wild on the island.)

The roasted rabbit meat Adrien carried wrapped in woven grass smelled so good. He had meat scraps back at at camp that he would try once he got home, but he'd chosen the choicest pieces for Marinette. After all, she would soon need to put on weight to support their baby. Not knowing exactly where he was going he hiked up river, hoping he would run into her. At first he didn't see her, but he did find an area where it looked like she's cleared the vegetation to give herself a path down to the water. The path lead away from the water a ways, in what he assumed was the direction in which she was now living, but the path faded out and became indiscernible before it could indicate anything that looked like a dwelling.

"Marinette!" he called out, laying out the grass mat with the meat on top of it. He waited, and was rewarded soon after by the sound of someone moving through the trees. When Marinette saw him, she immediately turned her back and dropped to all fours, presenting herself to him. He accepted that this time too they would be associating as animals and mounted her. When he finished he held himself inside her for a few moments, then slowly removed himself, making an effort to spill as little of his seed as he could. "Could I please take you back with me?" he asked, trying to pick her up. She squirmed in his arms and he took that as a 'no'. "Okay, fine, but please come home as soon as you can. I love you." He left her there, still lying on the ground, and made his way back to camp.

* * *

Another month passed with still no Marinette. Adrien believed he was going to have to meet with her a third time but when he went up the river with his roast fish (he hadn't been lucky enough to get a rabbit again) calling her name evoked no response. He could only conclude she didn't want to be found. That night, he went home and cried.

* * *

Marinette looked at the beach side camp in amazement. She guessed it had been close to a year since she'd been there, and she was impressed with what Adrien had done with the place. Their old shack of wood and grass had been torn down and replaced with one of rock. She thought about turning back, she hadn't had a hand in building this and didn't know if she had any right to come back and live in it, but the baby in her arms whimpered, urging her on. She had to show Adrien what they had created!

She entered the hut - house, she decided. It was nice enough to call a little house - and found Adrien with his back to the door, sitting and cleaning the fish he had caught. From the back, the first thing that struck Marinette was how long his hair had grown, a testament to how long they had been on the island. Her hair, she knew, was a little longer than his.

"Adrien..." she said softly.

Adrien was so surprised to hear her voice that he poked himself with the knife he was using. He turned around, finger in his mouth. "You came back?" he asked, tearing up.

"Here... it's another boy," she told him, putting the baby into his arms. "I hope you'll forgive me," she implored him, beginning to cry as well.

"For running away? I'm just glad you're home."

"For losing Louis. You seemed so happy to have a son, I felt like such an Indian giver when he died. I'm worthless as a mother if I can't even keep a child alive. I didn't feel like I was worthy of even looking at you until I at least replaced what I'd stolen from you, but I had to bend that rule a little if there was going to be any chance of getting pregnant again. When I failed to conceive the first time I felt absolutely worthless, I thought I might as well hole myself up and let you forget about me, but then you came looking for me and I decided that if you were giving me another chance, I could give myself one more as well."

"So that's what this is about? You think you killed Louis? I don't want you to ever think that way again, it wasn't your fault... mold."

"Mold?"

"Mold killed our son. I found it not long after you left, the rain caused our house to grow mold. I realized as soon as I saw it that the mold is what made all three of us sick. That's why I tore down our old house and built this one. Rocks won't mold, the new baby should be safe here."

* * *

"There's the island, to port! An airplane reported smoke signals coming from that island."

Four years after being lost at sea, Adrien and Marinette were finally found and returned to Paris. They brought with them their two year old son Hugo, and about a month after they settled in, Emma was born. They made a life for themselves their in the city, but they could never forget their little desert island, and most of all, the untimely end of their Louis.


	10. Stranded: branch 2 of 2

"You kids keep doing as I show you, got it? I'll go back to the ship and process the samples we've already collected. I'm expecting you to act like adults and behave yourselves, you hear?"

The students tittered in excitement at the prospect of being left to their own devices out at sea. The teachers had already allowed them to out in the canoes with only the accompanying marine biologist for supervision, but now even he was trusting them to their own devices out on the open ocean. Or, maybe he simply didn't think a band of teenagers could cause much in the way of trouble when isolated far out at sea. Perhaps not on purpose, their troop was going to prove him wrong.

"Don't those clouds look a bit threatening?" someone asked.

"I would think so, but they can't be that bad. The captain said the weather would be clear today. Twenty-five years at sea, he should know."

* * *

"Twenty-five years at sea, I should have known!" the captain berated himself, "those kids were counting on me." What the sea had taught him in that time was that the sea was unpredictable. At times a storm could be seen coming from miles away, and at other times it hit out of nowhere. The skies had looked clear in every direction when he'd given the okay for his passengers to take the rowboats out and explore. Those kids got such a thrill being allowed to leave the ship without any adults, and it all seemed relatively safe. He'd done it a dozen times before with other tour groups, but this was the one where it went horribly wrong. One minute his boats and their passengers were out there in the water, out of range to communicate by yelling, but still in sight of the ship. Even these teens weren't going to venture beyond the point where they felt they could easily row back. Then the next the waves were getting unusually choppy for the time of day. The captain ordered a flair to be sent up - something that had earlier been discussed with the students as a visual symbol to return to the ship. Efforts were made to follow the command, and the rowboats did make it further in before the waves picked up and carried them back up to sea. The captain never saw his rowboats again.

* * *

"What happened?" A group of bedraggled teens huddled together on the beach of a desert island. "It looks like we're all alive at least."

"Freak storm, blew us away from the ship! How are we going to get home now?"

"Haven't you ever watched a shipwreck movie? We're doomed! Either we're never going home, or we'll have gone completely insane by the time we get there! Either way, our lives are essentially over."

The group descended into despair, everyone influenced by their classmates' negative outlook. "I wish Ladybug and Chat Noir were here!"

Unaware of each other, two teens simultaneously looked down at their kwamies. 'Well, at least one of us is here. It looks like it's up to me to be the hero.' Both slunk off into the trees to transform, both two focused on their own task to notice the other.

"No need to fear, I am here," both heroes declared right around the same time. Neither had much idea what to say next, as each was secretly fearful themself, but was determined not to show it in front of their peers. It turned out the next words out of their mouths were each other's names.

"Chat?!"

"Ladybug?!"

"Oh, Ladybug, I knew you would come to save me!" Chloe ran up and threw her arms around the spotted heroine.

"Right..." Ladybug hesitantly hugged her frenemy back, right now everyone needed one another, they couldn't afford to infight. "I would never leave a citizen of Paris alone in peril. Listen to me, everyone," she announced to the group. "I'm not letting anything happen to any of you, but I need help from all of you. Rescue is on the way, but we need to help them by building a beacon to guide them in, and by surviving until they can get here. I need four volunteers to start building a bonfire, and the rest of you to help construct some huts for us to shelter in. I imagine it will get cold here when the sun goes down."

"Affirmative, Ladybug," Markov agreed, eager to have somewhere to contribute his vast knowledge of every.

"You're here?" she asked him. "I assumed you stayed behind on this trip. Isn't seawater dangerous for you."

"It would indeed have killed me in my previous build. Max and I pulled an all-nighter right before the trip, outfitting me so that I wouldn't rust. Now, if you can excuse him from his building duties for the time being, I need his help to find a way to charge my battery without electricity. I'll die within a few days if we don't succeed."

"Oh, of course. We don't want to lose you, Markov."

"Thank you kindly, I promise I can make up the lost work once my power source has been stabilized. Oh, Max! Do you by chance have any spare circuit boards I could use?"

"Not exactly spare, Markov, but I can take one out of my cellphone if you'd like."

"Yo, dudes!" Nino greeted the superheroes when they came to check on the area where he was working. "Can you help me out with something? I can't find my buddy Adrien. I saw him here on the island right after we landed, but he disappeared about the time you guys made your announcement."

"My friend Marinette is gone too," said Alya, adding herself in to their conversation. "They are friends with each other, so they might have gone somewhere together, but it's not like either one of them to ditch responsibilities like this."

"Oh, yes, we know where your friends are." Chat told them. "M'lady and I gave them special responsibilities that fit well with their individual skills. Sorry to make you worry about them, they'll both be back to camp by sundown."

Nino and Alya agreed to trust the superheroes word and got back to work without a complaint, satisfied that their friends were safe.

"Are you okay?" Chat whispered to Ladybug as they moved along. "I told them that mostly because I don't want them to worry, but I really do know where Adrien is. I don't know where Marinette is, but I saw your face when she was mentioned. I'm guessing you know."

Ladybug sighed, "We're not going to be able to keep our identities secret from everyone, are we?"

"Our identities? Our identities don't have anything to do with the current topic... unless... how did you already know that I'm Adrien?"

Ladybug stared at him in shock. "_You _are Adrien? I _didn't _know! You just volunteered that information out of nowhere you - ... but I guess we are going to have to tell everyone who we are anyway. They're going to expect both our hero selves and our civilian selves to be there at dinner. Everyone will be worried if we don't show up as heroes, and at least Nino and Alya will miss us if our civilian forms aren't there. We could tell everyone ahead of time that they won't see us at dinner because we'll be there as civilians, but we'll no doubt be needed to calm any unrest that's sure to come up. They still need us to be their heroes in a different sort of way."

"Do you realize that you pretty much just admitted to me that you're Marinette?"

"Shh," Ladybug smiled mischievously, putting a finger on Chat's nose. "You don't know that until tonight."

* * *

The others on the island were surprised by the reveal but ultimately took it pretty well. After all, Ladybug and Chat had to be among the group who had gone out in the rowboats to be stranded with them now; that really didn't give many options. They were more or less forced into a leadership role by their peers who were eager for some sense of stability. Over the course of a few months, they struggled to adjust for the changing needs of their village.

"We have called this meeting to discuss the issue of overall morale. At this point, all matters of our collective physical health are under control, and it seems relevant for us to put measures in place to increase our happiness while living here. The floor is open, does anyone have a suggestion?"

Their lengthy discussion lead to the decision that they would give up on rescue and focus on a future on their island, would form their own government with their own laws, and would plan a festival for some time in the next month to celebrate the foundation of their village.

As the planned date of the festival grew closer, Marinette felt Adrien distance himself from her. She didn't think he was doing it on purpose, but rather that he was preoccupied with something. He kept whispering with several of the other boys and would spend several hours an evening huddled at the edge of the camp fire working on something, but would hurriedly hide it any time Marinette tried to get a peek. Finally one evening, when there was just a hint of dusk in the sky, Adrien asked Marinette to go for a walk with him. "I know I've been neglecting you," he began "but I've had a lot on my mind lately. I hope I can make it up to you." He reached into the woven grass pouch attached to his belt and drew out a carved wooden ring, glazed with what looked like hardened tree sap. "Will you marry me?"

Marinette sucked in her breath, gently picking up and turning over the ring. It had a ladybug and cat carved into it, surrounded by multiple hearts, and coated in a beautiful glossy finish. "Did you make this?"

Adrien looked to his feet in embarrassment, self conscious about proposing with a homemade ring. "It was the best that I could -"

"It's beautiful!" Marinette interrupted him. "Yes! If we ever have the opportunity, I will marry you." She slipped the ring onto her own finger and continued to admire it.

"Oh..." he sighed, relieved by her enthusiasm. "I'm glad you like it. I would have asked you sooner, but I had to recarve the ring several times before I got one I liked. But... I don't think we're exactly on the same page. It's not a hypothetical 'if we ever make our way back to civilization, would you marry me?' I'm asking you to marry me here, at the festival. I wouldn't have asked you if I didn't love you, but this is also meant to be symbolic. I've been planning this with several of the other guys who are serious about their girlfriends, and we decided to all propose tonight. Marriage is a new beginning, which is exactly what the festival was meant to symbolize in the first place, and officiating weddings is something only a real government can do, so if we say that we on this island have our own government now, we should be able to exercise that right."

Realizing marriage was far more eminent than she would have guessed, Marinette giggled and hid her blushing face in her new fiancé's chest. "Okay, so who else is going to get married in the mass wedding?"

"I could tell you who else was going to propose, but I want it to be a surprise. Let's go back to camp and see who else announces their engagement tonight."

* * *

"So if this many people are getting married, and with no access to contraceptives, there's going to be a lot of little kids running around in a few years."

Most of the newly engaged couples blushed furiously, many of them sending careful glances to their respective partners to gage reaction. No one had gotten around to talking about babies or the act that causes them.

"Well, there's always pulling out, isn't there?"

"I think it would be good for community if someone has a baby," Mylene offered hesitantly. "It doesn't matter who its parents really are, we could raise the child as a village. Since I'm suggesting it, I know I should volunteer, but I'm scared of going first."

Clusters of two and three began whispering among themselves. Opinions ranged from positive to indifferent, no one had much of a reason why their village couldn't support a baby or two. No girl, however, was jumping at the idea of eventually having to give birth while roughing it.

Marinette bumped her hand against Adrien's to draw him out of his thoughts and get him to listen to her. "Everyone sees us as the leaders here, do you think we should...?"

"Do you feel ready for something like that?"

"No, but all we would have to do is pretend we're not scared and do it anyway. I think I can handle that."

Adrien cleared his throat. "Everyone, Marinette and I have decided that starting on our wedding night, we will try to conceive a baby."

Some people gasped, some nodded, one person clapped. Mylene looked up at Ivan, who squeezed the hand of his fiancée in return. "Mylene and I will go second, starting whenever comes first: in six months, or when the first pregnancy is confirmed."

* * *

It had been sixteen horrible years since Tom and Sabine lost their daughter at sea. They'd kept hopeful for some time that the search and rescue missions would turn up something, but on the one year anniversary of her disappearance, the baker and his wife accepted that their dear Marinette was dead. Still, they were emotionally unable to reclaim their attic, and left it just the way Marinette had it when it was her bedroom. They tried not to dwell on memories of her most days, but every year on special days such as her birthday or the anniversary of her death, they would sit in her room in silence and allow themselves to mourn. But it was on a special day they didn't know was special yet when a police officer came into their home. "Are you the parents of the late Marinette Dupain-Cheng?"

"We are. Why?"

"Come with me."

They were lead to the police station by the staunch officer, where they were greeted by a far more cordial commander. "Pay no mind to his behavior. For security reasons, my junior officer doesn't know the reason he escorted you here. For all he knows, you two could be suspects in a crime - you're not."

"This is about Marinette? Did they find a body?"

"Not quite. Now," the police officer sighed. "Before we go any farther, allow me to tell you not to get your hopes up. We think this is a scam. That being said, we have a young man in our custody who claims that your daughter is alive and that she is his mother."

The couple didn't know what to say. Sure, they had been just told not to believe it, but they wanted to. This was the first time in half past a century they'd been given any hope their daughter could still be alive. "Does his name happen to be either Louis or Hugo? She always said that she liked those names."

"He does claim his name to be Louis... but any good con artist would learn that much about their victim. Do not, I repeat, do not get attached to him before the DNA tests come back. Speaking of which, that is the reason we asked you here today, we wanted to know if you would provide DNA samples to decide if he is indeed related to you."

The couple agreed to the process, which was quicker and more painless than they thought to hope. Each held a cotton swab in their mouth for a few seconds and the samples were off to a lab to have results in a few days.

"Is he here in this building? May we see him?"

"You may see him if you wish, but be careful how you associate with him. It's safest if you for now assume he's a criminal, it will be heartbreak all over again if you choose to believe him and it's a hoax."

Tom and Sabine were lead down a hallway to a room with a big glass window. Seated at a table inside the room was a teenaged boy, his hands cuffed in front of him, his head resting forlornly in his hands. Sabine gasped and backed away from the window before the boy could see her, in case it wasn't actually a one way mirror. "Tom, he looks like Adrien did at that age."

"Who is it that he looks like?" the officer asked in interest.

"Adrien Agreste. He was a teen model at the time he disappeared, and in Marinette's class."

"And did you know him well?"

"Yes, he and Marinette were quite close toward the end. If she'd have settled down with anyone who was on that ship, it would be him."

"You're giving credibility to the young man's story," the police officer noted. "He does claim Adrien Agreste as his father. Then again, he could have chosen him because he knows they look alike, and chose Marinette because their families would have an easier time believing that they would have had a baby together. I don't know, his story is worth looking into, but I still wouldn't trust him yet. You would still like to talk to him?"

Tom and Sabine agreed that they did want to talk to the boy, and were lead into the interrogation room to sit across from him. Louis heard them come in and looked up solemnly, his expression changing to wonder as he realized who they were. "Gran-père? Gran-mère?"

Joyful tears sprang to the eyes of his grandparents, who in that moment, despite the police's warnings, knew this boy was exactly who he said he was. Though most of the boy's physical appearance took after his father, he still had certain features that - to them - were unmistakably inherited from their long lost daughter. "Yes. It's us, we're here with you."

"I'm so relieved," Louis cried. "My other grandfather refused to see me. He refused the DNA test as well. I was so afraid you would reject me as well."

Internally, the couple frowned. That was troubling, but not all that surprising. Through persistence and their shared grief, they'd managed to get on friendly terms with Gabriel Agreste, but they knew he could be a difficult man. They decided they would have to pay him a visit and sort things out after they left. "We would never abandon our own grandson. Your other grandpa will probably come around to you as well. He always tries to push new people away, but he does care about family. We're acquainted with him, we'll talk to him for you. So, can you tell us about yourself?"

"Uh," Louis reflexively tried to scratch his head in response to the question, only for his action to remind him he was handcuffed. "Even though I'm barely fifteen, my life's story is already longer than I can tell you in one visit. Where do you want me to start?"

Though just looking at him gave a rough estimation of Louis' age, his grandparents were still shocked to learn he was already fifteen. Marinette sure hadn't wasted any time getting pregnant in her new home - wherever it was. "Tell us where you were born, and anything you know about how your parents got there."

"I don't know if there's any name for the island where I was born other than the name our village gave it. We just call it 'Îsle des miracles', because all the grownups say it's a miracle that no one died out at sea that day and that all the rowboats washed up on the same island."

"Hold on, you mean to say that every single person who was lost on that trip is still alive?"

"Well, there were a few different classes from different schools, so not everyone knew everyone else in the beginning, but no one knew of anyone that was missing, so unless an entire class went missing all together, they're all still alive. Anyway, my parents and everyone their age built our town from scratch, starting with the bare necessities and adding more comforts and conveniences as they went along. The first few months they were holding out for rescue before they realized our island is a pretty great place to live. Several couples, including Maman and Papa, decided to get married all at the same time as a way of celebrating their new beginning. I was the first person to be born on the island, and that was right around a year after we got there."

"Do you have any brothers and sisters?"

"Four right now: a brother and three sisters. Emma is close in age to me, but there are eight years between her and Hugo. Eloise is three years younger than him, and Madeleine is two years younger than her."

* * *

"GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEAD; YOUR DAUGHTER IS DEAD!" Gabriel almost immediately felt bad for his outburst. As often as the couple from the bakery annoyed him trying to be social, he'd grown a reluctant fondness for them. They could share a sort of camaraderie, having also lost their only child on that same day.

"I do not wish to dishonor your daughter's memory." Gabriel continued more quietly. "I'm not saying my son wouldn't have wanted to start a family with her, quite the opposite, I'm sure that if Adrien and Marinette had lived, our families would be joined by now. I'm saying Marinette was too good to have borne a bastard child. That's why I know this is a scam, because neither of our children would have a child out of wedlock. I don't need to have a DNA test done."

"But, Gabriel, you haven't even seen Louis. If you would just talk to him..."

"You really believe he is your grandson?"

"Yes!"

"And you both already submitted DNA samples?"

"Yes."

"Then all the more reason I don't need to. Here's the deal; I trust you and I trust your daughter. If she is indeed alive and is this boy's mother, I believe she would never raise a child who would lie about his paternity, no matter what inheritance he stood to gain. If the tests somehow come back that he is indeed your grandson, then I will accept that he is also mine, no more questions asked. Until then, I don't want anything to do with him."

* * *

"It's okay, Louis, he promised he would accept you." Louis stood between his mother's parents, outside the house of his paternal grandfather. He'd been kept in juvenile detention for five days while waiting for his test results. Only when his results came back positive did a rescue boat take him out to the spot where a cruise liner had pulled him out of the water to see if he could guide them back to his home island. To his disappointment he could not, and was returned to Paris by helicopter while the boat continued to search for the elusive island. Back in Paris, his grandparents were awarded custody of him up until he might be reunited with his parents.

"I still don't think he wants me," he mumbled.

A good five or ten minutes after having spoken to them over the intercom, Gabriel's assistant Nathalie opened the door for them. "He is ready to see you now."

"I can't believe this happened," Gabriel sighed, first thing when set eyes on Louis. "I really thought Adrien was above having a bastard child. I suppose being stranded on a deserted island must do things to a person's mind that I can't understand, but still, I'm shocked. Under normal circumstances I would have to disown him, but it does sound as though Adrien treats Marinette as his wife, so he still has some sense of morality about him. I can forgive him if they agree to marry as soon as they are back in Paris."

"I am _not _bastard," Louis growled. "I might very well be a wedding night baby - my parents are teased about that constantly - but I was not conceived before my parents were married."

"So they did exchange vows with each other in some sort of ceremony... It sounds like they had the closest thing to a wedding that was available. Look, Louis, I can see that this bothers you as much as it does me, but there was no one on the island who was qualified to marry them, your parents' marriage isn't legally binding."

"What? I - no... This isn't fair! Not to my parents, not to anyone in their situation. Do the vows they made mean nothing because they don't have a piece of paper? I remember some of the more recent weddings that took place, and I can tell you they were taken seriously by everyone involved!"

* * *

"This isn't fair," Louis repeated over again, now standing in his mother's bedroom, taking it all in. "Who has the right to say my parents' marriage isn't legal?" He had gone rounds with his grandfather for close to an hour with neither conceding to come around to the other's side. Though Gabriel was surprisingly patient, explaining the high levels of bureaucracy it would take to make the existing marriage legal, he maintained that the easiest thing to do was start from scratch and have them married as soon as possible. His other grandparents had eventually dragged him home, where his grandmother was settling him into the room where he would live until his parents came to collect him.

"Woah, is this a computer?" Louis asked, spying the box for which he knew no certain name, and connecting it to the concept for which he knew no physical manifestation.

"You know what computers are?" Sabine was surprised, considering Louis had spent his entire life removed from technology. What sense would there be for his parents to teach him about it if the would have likely believed he would never see one.

"Maman did say she had one one her desk - Papa had three. They described them as being like a cellphone that's much bigger around and a little thicker. I've seen smartphones - not working of course - but enough to get the idea. Can you show me how to use Google?"

It surprised Sabine how undaunted her grandson seemed by the prospect of learning to use the technology he had never seen in his life. He'd grown up hearing about it, she guessed. "We can try. This computer is old, as computers go, so I don't know if the internet will support it anymore. If not, I can show you on one of the computers down stairs.

* * *

"Where is Marinette?" Marinette's parents watched the the stream of people coming off the airplane. In only a matter of weeks, the tidings came that the island full of stranded Parisians had been found. Today was the day, families of the long-lost were gathered to welcome the rescue plane coming in. Louis had of course come to the airport as well, but upon seeing Gabriel, had wandered off to continue his debate. Gabriel seemed surprisingly tolerant of the boy, so Tom and Sabine let him be, and gave their attention thoroughly to viewing who was coming off the plane. Though the people they remembered as teenagers were now all in their early thirties, they recognized a surprising number of their daughter's former classmates, but their daughter herself was not among them.

Nearby, they could hear the excited reunion of Alya with her parents and sisters. Thinking that where her best friend was, Marinette would not be far behind, they turned in that direction expectantly to watch. Alya caught sight of them, and unexpectedly, her face drooped. "Excuse me," she told her family, "I'll be right back. I have to break some bad news."

To the couple's surprise, Alya walked right toward them. "Alya! Where's Marinette?"

"You won't be seeing Marinette for a while," Alya informed them flatly, "at least not a version of her that's anything like who you remember. She'll be back eventually, but right now she's being a *."

"Alya!" As forthright as they knew Alya could be, they never expected to hear her curse when talking about their daughter.

"I'm sorry, but it's true. I had to warn you before you have a run in with her. She's expecting right now, and as far as I can figure, she must be allergic to her own hormones. Pregnancy changes her into a completely different person, and it's not pretty."

Her parents began to slightly understand where Alya was coming from, but they were still confused. "We've had Louis with us for weeks! Why didn't he mention any of this?"

Alya snorted. "He takes after his father. I don't know if Adrien trained him that way, or if it's genetic inclination, but Marinette can't do a thing wrong in the eyes of her husband or her oldest son while she's pregnant. They treat it as though she has a get out of jail free card. She could beat Adrien black and blue and he wouldn't try to stop her. The only time I've ever seen him lift a finger against her is in defense of their children."

"Marinette's hurt her own kids?"

"She's tried to, but only when she's not in her right mind. She's an excellent mère when she's not growing another one, but it never lasts. Even though she says she's terrified of 'becoming a monster again' it's only a matter of time before there's another baby.

"They were pretty well pressured into having their first one. It was them who stepped up and calmed the initial panic when we landed on the island. After that, they were pretty much told they were going to be head of our village. A few months in we had a vote to embrace living on the island, and planned a founder's day festival that fairly quickly turned into a mass wedding for many of us, including me. Louis was made to be living proof of everyone - not just his parents - starting a new life. It worked well as a way to raise everyone's morale at first, but around the time Marinette was a couple of months pregnant, it became impossible not to notice how coldly she was treating Adrien. They're both my friends, but Marinette's my best friend, so naturally I wanted to blame Adrien for the troubles in their relationship - but it only took a few weeks to realize that wasn't true. At one point Marinette said she 'needed to get away from him for a while', so Nino and I let her stay with us. She started griping about everything, and that's when I realized she was being completely unreasonable. I had Nino ask Adrien why he hadn't told us anything about what was going on, his answer was pretty much that he believed she was acting that way because pregnancy made her feel uncomfortable, and because it was his baby, it was his job to feel discomfort with her and not complain about it. After he got a little more open about talking to us he kept counting down the days and repeating that the baby was going to be worth it. Even with them living apart, he was still coming over constantly to see if she needed anything. She just kept getting more irritable and when she was about four months along she told him she was leaving him for good, and that she didn't want to see him ever again. He was a wreck after that. He stayed out of her way like she asked, but he kept asking Nino and me if there was anything Marinette needed and what he could get for her. Pretty soon Marinette decided she was tired of us too and moved out on her own into a hut removed from the rest of the village. That went on all the way up until she gave birth. She wasn't friendly at all during that time period, but she was more tolerant of me than anyone else, so I still went to check on her each day. One morning I found her in labor and miraculously clear minded. She begged me to bring Adrien to her, and then begged him to take her back. He was of course more than happy, they went home together with their baby, and... Marinette got pregnant again.

"Adrien was a lot calmer the second time Marinette 'left' him. The first time, he seemed afraid he'd lost her for good. The second time he knew she was coming back. He also had a baby to look after, especially since Marinette soon didn't want anything to do with Louis; she didn't even want to feed him! By the time she started going looney the second time, Ivan and Mylene had a baby, so Mylene offered to feed Louis, but she didn't always have enough milk after feeding her own baby, so we sometimes had to force Marinette to feed Louis. That was a multiple person job. Eventually Adrien kicked out Marinette for fear of her hurting Louis, and she went back to her isolated cabin until she gave birth to Emma. They were apparently much more careful when they got back together the second time, because she didn't have another baby for seven years.

"The third baby must have been an accident, considering how distraught Marinette was when she realized she was pregnant again. She got quite and depressed for a few weeks, and I suspect she considered trying to abort it, but decided she couldn't. She ended up isolating herself before she completely lost her mind so that she could properly say goodbye to her kids. Emma threw a fit, wanting her mother to come back. That's when Louis matured all of a sudden. He rounded up his sister and insisted on taking on more responsibility at home. When Hugo was born and Marinette came home again, Louis told his parents that it was _okay _if they wanted to have more kids, and that he would look after his little siblings when his mom wasn't around. He was only eight when he said that - mind you. Everyone who heard him say that thought it was funny, but it must have put them somewhat at ease to have their son's blessing, because there's been a new baby every two to three years since then. That brings us up to about a month ago when Louis got swept out to sea on a fishing expedition, and I think you know the rest."

Tom and Sabine thanked Alya, who returned to her own family, and the couple returned to watch those being unloaded off the plane. Likely due to her mental state, Marinette was kept back until most passengers had already been cleared out of the way, then was escorted to her parents by search-and-rescue personnel.

"Maman! Papa!" Having been warned of her recent behavior, her parents had been worried Marinette wouldn't be happy to see them, but she tearfully fell into their arms. "I didn't think I'd ever make it home again." She buried her face in her father's chest as she embraced both of her parents at once and continued to mumble about how awful her life had been for years. After about a minute she pulled away and spoke clearly again. "Are we going home?"

"If that's where you would like to go, dear, of course we can. Let's just find your kids and..."

Marinette flinched. "You too? I've been forced to raise Adrien's spawn for years now," she snarled "don't I deserve to go free? Even my own parents want to keep me imprisoned?"

"Marinette... I thought you loved him?"

"I did. At least I believed it when I married him, but he's kept me fat and ugly all this time... I hate him!"

"Okay, okay, you don't have to see him if you don't want to but come on, let's check on the kids. They are yours too, not just his."

"They might as well be, they're all ridiculously like him."

Tom and Sabine had only met Louis so far, but they had to admit he was an awful lot like his father. Those similarities were on the surface while they had to look deeper into his character to find the similarities to his mother that were nonetheless there. They wondered if the whole family was like that or if Marinette was just exaggerating. After confirming the younger children were with Adrien, and that he had met up with Gabriel and Louis, the family departed without having to come face to face with the man Marinette was so sensitive about.

Louis called a few hours later, informing his grandparents that he was staying with his father and grandfather. That seemed just as well, considering Marinette spoke venomous words regarding her son, and her parents thought they might be able to use some alone time to get through to her. They learned she cared nothing for the baby she was carrying either, and that she would seperate herself from it if she could. They argued several rounds with her before she agreed to attend to her prenatal health and be seen by a doctor.

The next afternoon, Adrien showed up at their bakery. "I'm sure I'm the last person you want to see," he began, "after what Marinette has probably said about me."

"We've heard her version of the story. We've also heard Alya's."

Adrien relaxed visibly at the notion that he wasn't explaining himself to his in-laws from scratch. "Then you know. Of course Marinette isn't a bad -"

"We'll look after Marinette for you. Her, and the unborn baby. You focus on the children you already have and your family will be back together in no time. We've taken her to see a doctor, and he believes he can help Marinette's mental condition."

"Before she has the baby? That's great! I know she'll recover, she always does, but I'd love to have her back sooner. Also, my père was pretty sore when he found out the state she's in. He's of the mind that we should be remarried under French law as soon as possible, and I don't think she would agree to that right now."

Her parents had to agree she wouldn't.

* * *

"Adrien! I've missed you!" Marinette threw her arms around her husband as soon as he entered the room.

"I didn't go anywhere."

"I know, but I've felt so distant. This is amazing, I've never had a clear mind far enough into a pregnancy to feel the baby move and not be disgusted by it! I think I'm going to enjoy the rest of this pregnancy, but still, I think it had better be my last one." She gave him a meaningful look, to which he looked sheepish in response.

"Now we have access to various methods, that shouldn't be too hard to control. ... So... you found out that your mental condition was due to a vitamin deficiency?"

"Yeah," Marinette laughed. "The doctor explained to me that cultures who live on islands have usually had generations to adapt to it, and the diet suits them just fine, but populations native to different areas have become dependent on different vitamins that are more readily available in our diet. It turns out the deficiency wasn't that severe. Out of everyone on the island, I was the most genetically predisposed to be sensitive to it, but even I was fine - when I wasn't pregnant. When the baby starts to grow bigger it required more nutrients for itself and my body was sacrificing my personal supply to keep the baby healthy, which wasn't leaving me enough to function properly and made me go..." Marinette raised a finger to the side of her temple and rotated it in a few quick circles, indicating her prior mental state.

Everyone in the room stayed silent for a few minutes, just soaking up the feeling of being all together again. Then Adrien decided to relive something that was burdening his mind. "Uh... Mari? You know how I told you before that I was nervous about coming back here, because I didn't know if our families would approve of us? I've been talking to my père, and it's better than I expected. He's open to accepting you as his daughter-in-law, but he doesn't want to acknowledge our wedding as being real. He called it an 'acceptable placeholder', but that we should get 'properly married' now that we have access. I don't have a problem with that. Would you, my love?"

"You're asking me to marry you again?"

"Maman, you can't!" Louis interrupted them. "I've already explained to Papa and Gran-père why I think you shouldn't, but they won't listen. I understand if you want to celebrate your marriage, but make it a recommitment ceremony! If you 'make things right' now, you're implying that what you've been doing for years was wrong! Were you _wrong _when you had me and all of my siblings?!"

"Louis, you don't need to get worked up over this," Marinette tried to comfort her son, "it's just going to be a formality. Your papa and I have been married in practicality for years, but we're _not _legally married - yet. We will be soon, so be happy for us."

"Okay, so you're not _legally _married under _French_ law, but you don't need to _get _married to _become _married. I've been reading up on this, and as a member of United Nations, France is obligated to recognize a marriage that took place in another country."

"Îsle des miracles isn't a country."

"So declare it one! International law allows that any person or persons living on land that is not already claimed by any country can declare themselves a sovereign country."

"Louis..." said Gabriel, who had been listening quietly the whole time. "That could work. Why didn't you bring that up before now?"

"I would have if you'd given me the chance. Any time I brought up that Papa and Maman didn't have to get married again, you wouldn't listen to anything else I said."

"Well," Gabriel coughed, "I'm listening now. Why don't we get you to talking with a lawyer to see where to start sorting this out."

* * *

"Yes, it could be done, but it might not be in your best interest. I must warn you that if you declare 'Îsle des miracles' to be it's own country, you will lose your claim to French citizenship. You will effectively be made to have been born in a foreign country. Since you're undoubtedly born to French parents, you still have a claim to citizenship through them, but your birth would have to have been recorded with some sort of French embassy within your first five days of life for it to count. Is your parents' marital status important enough to you that you would sacrifice citizenship for it?"

"If that's the case, then the rest of the kids born on the island should have a say in this, but that's fine with me. I don't feel like I'm French born. 'Born abroad, to French parents' is how I identify anyway. It shouldn't be too difficult for me to become naturalized - considering I do have French parents after all. All the other kids are in the same place I am. I don't think they would consider it a big deal to wait five years for the naturalization process. It wouldn't even make a difference at all to anyone under thirteen - their five years will be up before they are old enough to apply anyway!"

"If you're set on being declared a country, there's one more thing in your way. You can't have a country without residents. Someone would have to go and live there as a primary residence."

Louis perked up at the idea of going back to the island, then he looked sideways at his parents and slumped in his seat. "We're staying in Paris, aren't we?"

"Of course we are! Sixteen years and we just got back, and your maman's finally able to start the fashion line she's been dreaming of!" Adrien put his arms around Marinette, proud of his wife's achievement.

"Louis," Marinette asked, "do you actually want to go back to that island?"

"I get it," Louis sighed. "This is home. For you. I've never been here before. I was born on that island! That island is home to me."

"Should we go back?" Marinette asked Adrien quietly.

Louis didn't give his father a chance to answer the question that had been directed at him. "No! Don't give up on your dreams, Maman. You've given up so much for me in the past, let me for once. It's just a place, right? All the people from our village are here now, they're what's important." Louis thought he was doing a pretty good job, but his parents could see he was trying to convince himself as much as them.

"I don't see why we couldn't go stay in our old cabin one month out of the year," Adrien offered.

Louis lit up, "really, Papa?"

"Yes!" Marinette jumped on board the idea. "We could bring a few modern amenities with us - maybe even a pedal powered sewing machine. It would be the perfect place to get work done in peace, and then come back to the city to promote the designs."

"Perfect! Now who is going to inhabit the island the other eleven months of the year?"

* * *

The answer to that question turned out to be Louis, Emma, and several of the other kids from the village who had already been teenagers when the rescue plane arrived. They decided city life just wasn't for them, and returned to living primarily on the island of their childhoods. Adrien and Marinette of course missed their two oldest kids, but they still saw them two months out of the year - both on their continued yearly vacations to the island, and when the kids came back to the mainland, mostly to visit their grandparents, who were now going into their golden years. The eventual installation of a cell tower on Îsle des miracles also aided the family in keeping in touch.

Louis ended up marrying the daughter of Ivan and Mylene, the same one he had been nursed alongside as babies, and together they turned their island home into a resort, intent on sharing the place they loved with the public.


	11. Drunk

The buzzing phone on the nightstand cut into Adrien's conciousness, evoking a groan. The first thing he became aware of was his splitting headache. Unable to think clearly around it, he wondered why he had it, and why he couldn't stay unconscious if this was the alternative. He was on his belly too, which was strange, he didn't normally wake up in that position. He tried to roll over, only to realize his feet were immobilized, and his penis was snugly wrapped in something warm that caused a jolt of pleasure to travel up his spine every time he moved. 'Was I kidnapped?' he wondered.

"Ugh," a light moan issued from somewhere near his face clued him in to the fact that what he was laying on was another person, and the peculiar sensations he'd been feeling in his crotch was the result of being balls deep in a female sex organ. He pushed himself up onto his hands to get a better look at the girl under him, the act simultaneously pulling his penis most of the way out of her vagina. The friction of his action summoned an incredible feeling that briefly overrode his headache, before the pain took over again. At a distance where he could then see her whole face, he identified Marinette moments before her eyes fluttered open, and she gave him the most startled look he had ever seen. "Adrien?!"

He remembered a little. They were near the end of their last year in school, and had just finished the last big test before college. To celebrate, their entire grade had rented a hall to hold a massive party. Now that most of them were eighteen and could legally buy alcohol, a bit too much of it was consumed due to the thrill of having access to the substance unregulated by their parents. Remembering that much, Adrien highly doubted his previous assumption that he could have been kidnapped. The alcohol had apparently decided for him that hooking up with one of his best friends was a great idea. That still didn't explain, though, why he couldn't move his feet.

He craned his neck around behind him and noted that his ankles were chained to the bedposts using some sort of padded bedroom bondage gear. A key, most likely to his restraints, lay on the sheets between his ankles. He tried to reach for it, but forgot he was supporting his weight on his hands, lost his balance, and fell, reimpaling Marinette on the full length of his penis. "Oof!" she grunted, as he collapsed on her with too much force.

"Sorry," he apologized, trying again to reach for the key at the foot of the bed. Again, he couldn't reach it. Wondering if Marinette could wriggle out from under him and retrieve the key, Adrien inspected her situation. Her wrists were shackled to the headboard by restraints similar to those on his ankles, the lower half of her body was pinned to the mattress by his, ahem, fleshy spike. She wasn't going anywhere any time soon either.

"Drunk us must have thought we were _real cute_, huh?" he asked her, making a half-hearted attempt to ease the tension.

"Well, we did a good job if we can't get out," Marinette admitted, "but why would we have wanted to trap ourselves like this? It doesn't make sense to me - not when I'm sober."

"My best guess is we must have been nervous, but for some reason determined to go through with it anyway? This plan seems like it was created so that we couldn't back out once we start. The key is right there, I could unlock both of us easily if I could just turn and get it, but I can't turn around far enough when I'm stuck inside of you, and I can't raise myself up far enough to pull out of you because of these chains. You know we're trapped when everything we would need to escape leads in a circle. The only other possibility is if I didn't have to pull straight out and I could somewhat bend my penis to get it out of you. We need to come up with something that turns me off."

Adrien closed his eyes and tried to think gross thoughts, but to his frustration, remembering why he needed to turn himself off only turned him on more. Was he a sick pervert, or were most people secretly into this kind of thing without admitting it?

"Maybe it would be easier for you to get soft if we satisfy you."

With his hangover still assaulting his mind, it took him a little while to get what she meant. "But if I have an orgasm now, all of it is going inside of you."

"Adrien," she looked him dead in the eyes. "I've felt the weirdest sloshing feeling inside of me since I first woke up. I'm pretty sure you already came in me last night."

"Oh," her words sent tingles down his spine. "So we're already screwed?"

"Possibly. If anything is going to happen, it's already happening. The difference between one and two in this case is negligible."

"All right, then." He began moving himself up and down, slowly at first, wanting to make sure he wasn't hurting Marinette while he used her body to pleasure himself. The sounds she made didn't sound like pain to him, so he picked up speed and got into his chore. "How are you so calm?" he asked her. "I've seen you turn into a nervous mess in the past, over things that didn't seem near as big of a deal."

"Probably because I don't have much choice in the matter. I can't move, all I can do is trust you to do what you have to and free both of us. I'll be panicking plenty once I decide what I have to do next, trust me."

"What do you remember from last night?" he asked her, hoping that something she had to say would jog his own memory. It would bother him for months if he never got the full story of how they ended up in bed together.

Marinette squinted, trying to see backward through her alcoholic fog. "I got there with Alya at 18:00. We had a little wine and visited with some of the other girls. Then when the dance floor opened up, several girls went to find their boyfriends. Alya stayed with me until another DJ took over from Nino, but then she left me to be with him. I asked if I could dance with them, but Alya told me that we could hang out any day, and she wanted me to talk to someone else for a change. She told me to go talk to you, so I did."

"Can you remember anything about the conversation we had?"

"I remember I decided I might as well have another drink before I went to talk to you - and that turned into a few. I was pretty out of it by the time I got over to you. You insisted on buying me another drink and we talked about..." Marinette's face formed an 'o' and her eyes went wide. "I told you my deepest secret. You don't remember it, do you?"

It came to Adrien just then, feeling more like a dream than an actual memory. He would have dismissed it if Marinette hadn't just indicated it was true. "You're Ladybug!"

"No!" Marinette had an impulse to cover her face, causing her to yank at her bindings. "Oh, I messed up hard. I was hoping you wouldn't remember! Not that I don't trust you with my secret, but no one is supposed to know. You could -"

"I know, I could be in danger, but I won't say a word. Don't worry, no one will have any idea I know." Elation roared through Adrien's veins. So this was why his feelings for his partner hadn't stopped him from banging Marinette. It had always been Marinette, Marinette was _his. _His chore became his privilege - cuming deep inside her to stake his claim. Knowing all of her, and knowing he was the only person who knew her that intimately sent him over the edge. He began to pulse inside of her. Pulling out wasn't a choice, but he could make a point of pulling out as far as his restraints would allow him. It would give his sperm farther to swim and less of a chance of impregnating her. Instead, he obeyed his instincts and slammed into her as far as he could go, noticing that she was obedient to their nature as well, raising her hips to plant him deeper inside of her than he could have managed on his own. They shared a moment of silence, appreciating the gravity of the act they were committing. It's load deposited inside her, his penis shrank and easily slipped out, where it had held so firm seconds before. Adrien made quick work of freeing himself, then, upon discovering that a different key would be needed for Marinette's cuffs, got up to search the hotel room for it.

"I didn't think I would lose my virginity like this," Marinette whispered. "I mean, I guess I actually lost it last night, but I don't remember it, so this is pretty much it. Either way, I didn't think it would be part of a one night stand. I assumed I wouldn't give it away until I was in a committed relationship; maybe wait until marriage."

"You did."

Marinette turned her head to see where Adrien was. He was still butt naked, reading something he'd found on a table off to the side of the room. "What do you mean?"

"This wasn't a one night stand. According to this paper, you did save yourself. Other people 'hook up' when they get drunk, we eloped."

Marinette's heart jumped. She just woke up one day and she was married to Adrien. It all seemed too easy. Would it last? "So now what? Do you want to divorce me?"

Adrien walked back over to the bed, smirking. "Let me think." He held up the key to her cuffs. "I was going to let you out, but that marriage certificate changes my perspective. If the beautiful, sweet, naked girl chained to the bed is my wife," he crawled back up onto the bed and straddled her legs, "why shouldn't I enjoy the situation a little more?"

Marinette's face contorted rapidly in surprise, fear, and excitement before setting on confusion. "What are you going to do to me?"

"Oh, putting the key in the keyhole, just like you want me to do. - Okay, I'm teasing you - at least about the keeping you locked to the bed part," he opened the cuffs as he spoke, "but maybe this could be a good thing. To answer your question seriously, I don't want to make a mockery of marriage. If we can just run out and end the marriage the next day, I'll never be able to see marriage as a serious commitment again. Even if this decision was made while blackout drunk, we should at least try to make it work. Who knows, this could be the best thing that's happened to us."

Marinette felt a warm content spread throughout her body. Adrien had considered embracing what they'd done, and was open to the idea that he might enjoy doing so. She sat up and kissed him passionately, she'd have to mess up hard to not spend her life with him now.

Adrien seemed surprised by her response, but kissed her back happily. He only pulled away when his phone rang. He climbed off of Marinette once again and sat on the edge of the bed. "Hello?... Yes, Père, I'm fine ... sorry ... I wasn't awake when she called ... I got drunk, I spent the night in a hotel ... uh, that's a good question, could you meet me at that café where you sometimes meet clients? ... Please, I'll explain everything to you there."

"He guessed that I spent the night with a girl, but I didn't confirm anything. I didn't think I should tell him over the phone that we got married. Why don't you have your parents meet us there too? It seems like it would be easier to break the news all at once." Finding their clothes on the floor, he threw Marinette hers and being getting dressed himself. "Hey, uh, are you planning on taking the morning after pill?"

Marinette bit her lip, toying with the idea. Conceiving Adrien's baby would likely influence him to stay with her, then again, their relationship suddenly seemed to stand a fairly good chance of surviving even without the additional incentive. "I hadn't thought of that, but I guess I should. I don't know if I can handle two major life changes at once. Better foil the plans of my drunk self."

"You think you had intentions of getting pregnant?"

"Not sure, I at least wasn't afraid of the prospect. Drunk or not, I think I would know better than to have unprotected sex if I was trying to avoid having a baby. Yes, I think it's best if I take the pill, but I think I read somewhere that it can be good for up to three days after sex, so we can go ahead and meet with our families, then I'll stop by the pharmacy later."

* * *

"I knew you were with a girl!" Gabriel accused as he saw Adrien approach, hand in hand with Marinette.

"I didn't deny it," Adrien countered. For several months, since Adrien had come of age, he'd begun testing some of the limits with his father. All Gabriel could do now was throw his son out of his house, and so far, he hadn't. Anticipating what else he might say, Adrien added, "I'm an adult now, I don't have to come home every night if I don't want to."

"You still have our family reputation to uphold. Being an adult means you should be more responsible, and know what's expected of you without me telling you."

Adrien grinned, thinking of a way he could get his father to be supportive of the new arrangement. "I don't think you'll be disappointed in me when you hear the full story. Marinette's parents should be here soon, I'll tell you when we're all at our table."

* * *

"What's going on sweetheart? You had us worried. First you weren't answering any of our calls, then you call and ask us to meet you here? What couldn't you tell us on the phone?"

"This is the sort of thing we have to tell you in person - together, and we couldn't decide who's family to tell first, so we decided to do this all at once. We -"

Adrien brushed his hand against Marinette's under the table, silently asking for a turn to speak. He had an idea how he could lead up to the news of their marriage in such a way that his father would be enthused. "Father, you know how skilled of a designer Marinette is..."

Gabriel nodded.

"...and you've been worried that as her brand grows in popularity, it could steal business away from the Agreste name."

Gabriel tensed. Marinette may be a friend in a casual setting, but professionally, she was the enemy. Gabriel would never show weakness to a professional rival, and would have thought Adrien would know not to say such a thing in front of Marinette.

"The threat is nullified, whatever Marinette accomplishes now, it will all still be in the family - we..." he stopped, unsure who should impart the big news. It would be fitting for him to tell his father, but Marinette should be the one to tell here parents, and everyone was within earshot of one another. The same person would be telling all the parents.

"We got married," they said in unison.

"Oh, Sweetheart! We knew that you two have liked each other for a long time, but you weren't even officially seeing each other, were you?"

Gabriel was a bit more cynical. "While drunk? You made one of the biggest decisions of your life while drunk."

"Apparently I can't hold my liquor," Adrien admitted. "We agreed neither of us will consume that quantity of alcohol again without the other's sober supervision. But this time - we were lucky enough to make a good decision. We've been examining our motives and determined that this is what we wanted - we just needed liquid courage to get it done."

* * *

'This is not an abortive medication. This medication works by delaying ovulation for one menstrual cycle. This medication will not damage long term fertility. Pregnancy may still occur if the user has already recently ovulated before consumption.'

Marinette swallowed the pill anyway, no longer confident it would keep her from getting pregnant. Maybe she shouldn't have waited an entire day before going to the pharmacy. She didn't know where she was in her cycle - if she had already ovulated days before their special night, there may have been an egg waiting in her womb, and she may have woken up already pregnant. She could have ovulated while she slept with a womb full of cum. If that were the case, she might not be officially pregnant yet, but the pill would still be coming too late. Or, she could have ovulated some time while she was in the restaurant, discussing the future of their marriage. In that matter, a pregnancy would have been entirely avoidable if only she'd gone to get the pill as soon as possible. She felt she should be ashamed of herself for her irresponsibility, but strangely, it turned her on. The pill at least assuaged her sense of guilt. She could have used the situation to tie down Adrien if she wanted, but she did what she considered was the better option. They could have a baby when they were ready, and when it wouldn't interfere with the start of their careers. But... a little part of her would be disappointed if the pill did it's work. She couldn't stop thinking about how it felt when he came inside of her. Her body knew it was a significant event, and like what Adrien had said about marriage, she didn't know if she could take it seriously again if she could back out the next day. She was a married woman now, why couldn't a wife bear her husband's child?

Their friends had gone crazy when they'd found out. Alya quickly reminded Marinette that she had broken a promise. The two of them were supposed to be the Maid/Matron of Honor at each other's wedding. Now that that was spoiled, Marinette had to at least let Alya throw a party in honor of the marriage. That was a few weeks away. For now, she was still living separately from Adrien, but they were in the middle of home shopping, and would move in together once they found a place. They would be meeting again soon to look at some more options... maybe she should warn him about their possible situation.

* * *

"It's okay," Adrien told her, "products like this have to have disclaimers to protect their reputation, there's still a better chance than not that it will work."

Marinette thought of all the times Tikki had told her she was one in a million, but she didn't say anything to Adrien.

"Even if you do get pregnant, we're still okay. This trial relationship seems to be working, and you like kids, don't you?"

"Yes, I... There's no question I want to have kids, and I would want you to be their father, but this is just too soon. I have a career that's just starting, and I don't know if I could balance that and a child."

"You won't have to give up doing what you love, Marinette. You're not in this alone. Most of your drawing and sewing could be done from home anyway, and at the times that you have to go somewhere that you can't take a baby, I'm sure we can arrange our schedules so that I can watch the baby at that time. Well figure it out, hundreds of new parents do."

* * *

_Thump. Thump. Wrrr. _Marinette smiled to herself, feeling her baby squirm inside her as she sewed. The fruit from their night of drunken passion was ripe and ready to be born any day. She continued to be scared, but as her husband had said months before, they were figuring it out. They'd done this to themselves - she realized - by getting drunk and by procrastinating in taking preventive measures. She wasn't allowed to complain about the situation she'd found herself in, and she didn't want to anyway.


	12. Dreamland

Author's Note: Before we begin, I'd like to thank everyone who has sent me a story idea either in a review or a private message. Even though I haven't used any of them yet, I appreciate them, and I probably will use some of them when I run out of my own ideas. Just one thing; I've seen two recurring themes I would like to address. 1) While they may be used to develop the relationship side of the story, Ladybug and Chat Noir will not be getting in on the baby-making action. I write on the assumption that the only way for them to take off their suits is to detransform, so it has to be Adrien and Marinette to conceive. Maybe I can work something out where they disguise themselves as their alter egos in a setting where they don't know each other's identity - but for now it's a no. 2) More than one person has expressed interest in having Marinette be asleep for the conception - and in the case of one suggestion, the entire pregnancy. This surprises me, but I'm okay with it. I would have to come up with a solid medical reason for Marinette to sleep for such a long time - I'm not going to rewrite 'Sleeping Beauty' just with the names changed, so I don't know if I can make that work. I'm sure I can come up with one where she's asleep for just the conception - I just need to figure out how to set it up without turning Adrien into a self-centered jerk. For now, here's an idea I've held for quite a while that involves them being asleep.

* * *

Marinette knew she was dreaming. Nowhere in Paris was there a vast landscape like this - devoid of any building or anybody. She was dreaming and she knew it. Wait a second - that meant this was a lucid dream; she could have whatever or _whomever _she wanted without consequence. To test her theory, she wished for a small cozy cottage, filled with her favorite things, and watched as it materialized before her eyes.

* * *

Adrien was confused. One moment he'd been on a fanciful vacation with both his parents, and the next he was indoors in a neat but crowded living space. At first he seemed to be alone, but then the door opened and in walked Marinette. "Adrien," she declared abruptly, "I love you and I want to be with you."

He was dreaming, he had to be. That explained why his mother had been able to be there in the the last segment, and it also explained Marinette's passionate statement. It just confused him why he would dream of her. She was an attractive girl, no doubt, but his heart belonged to Ladybug. Why couldn't he dream of her? Because he didn't need to, he decided. Why dream about Ladybug when he was sure he would get to have her in real life? In real life, he was going to be faithful to her, but why not use the dream world as a safe place to acknowledge that he was in fact attracted to multiple girls, not just his true love? In his waking hours he would never be allowed to admit that he did in fact have a crush on Marinette, just not to the same degree he felt for his crime fighting partner. This was perfect - he could indulge those feelings and hopefully get them out of his system. He closed the distance between them in a few steps and thrust her against the wall. He felt no need to be gentle with her, this wasn't Marinette, this was a figment of his imagination who merely took the form of Marinette - she couldn't feel pain. "Good. Because I want you."

She whimpered, he ground his pelvis into hers and dominated her mouth with his own. When he grew bored of that, he picked her up and carried her into the bedroom of the house, where he threw her onto the bed. They were both suddenly naked - because that's how dreams work. She regarded him with a deep gaze that he felt could see anything he tried to hide from her, and spread her legs for him.

"We need protection," he mumbled, making a wrapped condom appear in his hand.

"Why?" she grabbed his wrist. "This is a dream, remember? Zero consequences. Can't we have the full experience, please?"

Adrien stopped to consider. He thought he wanted to save some of his firsts for Ladybug, but really, he was saving all his firsts for her. Imagining what it would be like to lose your virginity doesn't make you no longer a virgin. This was all in his imagination anyway, why deny himself any sort of pleasure? He tossed the condom over his shoulder.

* * *

"Class, I have some bad news. Marinette's family called the school this morning and let us know she's in the hospital."

"What happened to her?"

"We've been given permission to tell you, but you have to promise to be mature about it." After the class agreed, the teacher continued. "She has a prolapsed uterus. She went into labor in the middle of the night, and contractions didn't stop until her uterus was pushed all the way out of her body."

"Hold on, so Marinette was pregnant?!"

"No, she wasn't, but she experienced a false pregnancy. Due to a hormone imbalance, her body tried to give birth to a baby that wasn't there. A woman's contradictions are naturally triggered to stop when the baby and the afterbirth have exited the body, if neither of those are there, the contractions won't stop on their own. She's fine now, but the doctors told her family that if they hadn't found her soon enough she could have hemorrhaged and bled to death.

Adrien shuddered, a vivid image washing over his mind. Marinette, with her legs locked around his waist as he inseminated her. He hadn't thought about that dream in months but it was at the forefront of his mind now. He had a bad hunch. If a baby were to have been conceived around the time of that dream, the timing would be just right for it to be due. He'd thought it weird at the time that the Marinette in his dream kept talking about it being a dream. He would have thought that a figment of his imagination wouldn't know she was imaginary, maybe he shouldn't have brushed that off; but was what he was thinking now even possible? Could he have shared that dream with the real Marinette? He couldn't rest until he knew if he was responsible for putting her in the hospital.

He tried to visit her at lunch time, but it wasn't allowed in. They were restricting how many visitors she could have, and the limit had already been met. He went away, glad that she had that many people who cared to come see her in the hospital, but disappointed he wouldn't be getting an answer to his burning question. He tried again after school, and apparently all her other guests had come and gone at that point, because he got her all to himself. "How are you doing?" he asked her.

"Remarkably well considering what's happened to me," she mused. "They had to open me up to put everything back where it's supposed to be. Right now my whole body is numb, but it's probably going to be hard to handle when the anesthesia wears off."

"Did you at least give birth to the baby in your dream?" He tried to make his question sound like a joke, he could handle being wrong if she thought he was teasing her.

"Actually," Marinette blushed, "I did. A healthy baby boy."

"Did you name him?" Adrien asked, increasingly interested in her dream.

"I didn't get the chance. I barely got a look at him before the pain woke me up."

"I bet he was cute. Well, what did he look like?"

"Like a perfect blend of me and -" Marinette looked away from Adrien and whispered "his father."

"Who is his father?" Adrien didn't see a way to beat around the question any longer.

"... it doesn't matter"

"Yes it does!" Marinette looked startled by Adrien's outburst, and he felt he had to explain himself. "I'm going to sound like a creep for this, but I have to get it off my chest. I had a sexual dream about you months ago, and I know this sounds stupid, but I can't help wondering if I'm guilty for putting you in this situation."

"Was it a white stone cottage?" Marinette asked. "With empty fields around it in every direction?"

"I never went outside, but when you came in the door, yes, out the door behind you it was just grass as far as I could see. There was a cuckoo clock opposite the front door and a kitchen area along the right hand side of the main room. On the left hand side there was a door -"

" to the bedroom where we thought we could get away with anything. I guess some experiences are better left to the real world."

"I'm so sorry, Marinette!" He broke down. "They told us at school that if your parents hadn't found you soon enough you would have died. It would have been murder, and I would have gotten away with it!" He was moved to tears at her bedside, hoping she could forgive what he'd done.

"Adrien, I'm in the hospital because I shot myself. All you did was supply the gun."

He took a moment to decode her analogy. She mostly blamed herself for her situation. In her mind, he was just an accomplice.

"Remember whose idea it was to not use a condom? Things work differently in the dream world, I wouldn't have gotten pregnant if I didn't will it to happen. I wanted that experience in an environment that I thought was risk free. All I needed was for you to release inside to trigger my imagination. Now I know, no more babies in the dream world."

Adrien was relieved, but he still felt responsible. To think he'd actually shared that intimate moment with her, it blurred the line between what was real and what wasn't. He felt that he should be there for her and be a father to this baby, if only in his dreams. "Do you think that if we both concentrated on it when we go to sleep tonight, that I'd be able to come back to the cottage and see him?"

"I don't see why not. If we connected our dreams once, we should be able to do it again."

* * *

Marinette knew Chat would be expecting to see Ladybug for patrol. She wasn't supposed to leave her hospital room for the night, but she also couldn't leave him without him knowing where she was. She waited until the night nurse was just past her room and snuck into the bathroom to transform. "Tikki! Spots on!" She opened the phone on her yo-yo and dialed Chat's number.

"Hello?" He answered. "Is everything all right? I was beginning to wonder why you hadn't shown up."

"I won't be coming to patrol for a few nights Chat - personal emergency. I think I should be able to make it if there's an akuma, though." She hoped that promise wouldn't be tested, fighting an akuma would certainly violate her post surgery orders to take it easy.

"Are you all right?" After being assured by his partner that he didn't need to worry about her, he decided he needed to confide something in her. "LB? I hate to tell you, but I can't hide it from you - I've been unfaithful to you."

Ladybug laughed. "Oh, Chaton, how could you be unfaithful to me when we're not together?"

Her comment stung his heart, but he had to admit it was true. "I made a promise to myself that there was no other girl for me. Even if it doesn't mean anything to you, it does to me, and I broke it." He went on to explain how he'd had an intimate dream with another girl only to discover he'd shared the experience with her. She'd almost died for real birthing his child in the dream, and now he didn't know what to do because he still loved Ladybug but felt a sense of responsibility to the other girl.

Ladybug was unusually quiet after his account, then slowly said, "Are you sure she isn't your soulmate? I know you have feelings for me, but it could be just a crush. On the other hand, I don't think you can share your dreams with just anyone."

Adrien even worse didn't know what he should do. Ladybug practically told him he should pursue Marinette. Did the degree to which he looked up to Ladybug extend to whom she believed he should be romantically involved with in favor of herself? He'd be lying if he said he didn't want Marinette, but it would be hard to let Ladybug go.

Marinette, on the other hand, knew exactly what she had done. She'd given into Chat's desires without letting him know that he had won. Adrien would surely be coming after her now, and if what he liked was truly her and not the mask, he would forget about Ladybug soon enough as he became more involved in their relationship. She smiled as she went to sleep, intent on seeing her baby and her baby's father.

* * *

"I wonder if this is the only baby I'm ever going to have," Marinette whispered quietly. She and Adrien stood over the bassinet where the baby slept.

"Why would you think that?"

"My uterus really isn't built to be on the outside of my body, it got infected while exposed to the open air. I asked my doctors if I would be able to have kids in the future, and they couldn't guarantee me anything. It all depends on how well my body can repair the damage that was done. I thought of this as practice for the real thing - hopefully I'll still be able to do it."

* * *

Months passed and the trauma from the experience began to fade. Marinette was actually glad to see the return of her menstrual cycle because, though annoying, it suggested her reproductive organs were back in some sort of working order. That was good, she would probably want to use them some day.

In waking hours, she and Adrien weren't acting largely different around each other, but in their dreams, they discovered the rythm of how they worked as a family. Together, they watched their baby grow, and could hardly believe it was all their imagination. It felt so real and so right.

One day, while they were at school, Adrien pulled Marinette asside. It was unusual, they hardly ever spent time one on one in their waking hours. It usually felt like they didn't need to, as they saw each other exclusively in their dreams. Something serious must be going on if Adrien felt it couldn't wait until they were asleep. "Mari, I think we should end our dream."

The way those words felt to Marinette, he might as well have said he was breaking up with her. It completely blindsided her as well. It had appeared to her that he had a great time in their dreams. "You're getting tired of us?"

"No," Adrien shook his head vehemently. "I love you both very much, but, I think I love him too much. He's not staying an infant, Marinette. The other night he smiled when he saw me, like he recognized me and was happy I was there. I've been reading a lot about babies recently, do you know what object permanence is?"

Marinette shook her head.

"It's a stage of development when a baby comes to the understanding that something they can't currently see still exists. He's going to reach that stage soon, and then he'll know that he's not like us. He'll realize that when neither of us are actively thinking about him, he ceases to be. We're only asleep a third of our time, and he doesn't need to sleep at all, so he's spending two thirds of his time in a void of nothingness. I don't know about you, but if I were imaginary, I'd rather be obliviously to that fact. I don't want to be responsible for bringing him that emotional pain."

Marinette shook her head slowly. "How am I supposed to go back? I've had a switch flipped inside of me. I'm a mother now, don't make me a mother without a child. I would be willing to start the dream over again, but you know why we can't do that."

"It's not fair to him to let him continue the way he is, but maybe we could start over, with him as a real boy. I'd be happy to give you a baby in real life, if you would want that, just say the word."

* * *

"Adrien, can't you do that any harder?" Marinette complained. She'd allowed him to convince her why keeping him trapped in the dream world wasn't fair to their son, but she'd told him that despite their feelings, they should wait to do it for real. It wouldn't be socially acceptable when she got pregnant, and she wanted to put off getting in trouble as long as she could stand it. She held out just over two weeks before she told him he better not have been joking when he said he would give her a baby.

"I don't want to hurt you." He very slowly and carefully withdrew himself from her, just to inch his way back in. Marinette knew that his motive was just what he said it was, but it felt like teasing to her.

"You were rough with me last time," she referred to their love making from their dream.

"I know," Adrien cringed, "I wouldn't have if I'd known you could feel it."

"I want you to do that to me now, just like you did back then."

"You like it rough?" he asked in surprise, subconsciously picking up the pace a little.

"Rougher than your doing now, at least. I'll tell you if you hurt me. Until then, come on, let's make a baby."


	13. En Celo

Author's note - This chapter is inspired by the combination of two different ideas given to me by giby-chan. I changed the ideas a bit to fit my writing style, but I hope they are enjoyable nonetheless. Since the ideas were presented in Spanish, it seems fitting to have the title in Spanish as well.

* * *

"You know, kid, you're going to have to take care of your urges before you do something you're going to regret."

Adrien shook his head, "I can't, Plagg. I'll make love with LB once she sees how good we are together. Until then, I'll just keep suppressing it. I can't just use some girl. I might enjoy it in the moment, but it doesn't feel right if it isn't love."

Despite his words, Adrien wasn't so sure how long he could hold out. Every time he turned into Chat Noir, his need worsened. Plagg had explained to him that this was Adrien's feral side wanting to be paid back. Every time he used his enhanced senses as Chat Noir, he was drawing on this latent portion of himself. Before having its energy drained the beast was sleeping, but it was awake now, and it wanted to mate. At the moment, he could control himself, but he knew that was because he was alone in his bedroom without a girl in sight. In the past weeks, Adrien had found himself sexually attracted to any female he laid eyes on, some more than others, but every girl was something of a temptation for him. He was disgusted by this new version of himself, where had his values gone? Even in the midst of his disgust, his penis hardened at the mere thought of girls. "I'd better go take care of myself," he sighed, heading to the bathroom, "no way I'll be able to go to sleep with _that_."

* * *

"I haven't slept well in nights," Marinette complained. "But tonight is going to be different. I've finished all the projects that were keeping me up late. I'm going to get to bed early tonight, and I've even got a little something to help."

"What's that?" Tikki asked.

"Just an over the counter sleep aid. My parents suggested I try it to catch up on lost sleep. I'm not going to take it regularly, just until I'm back to normal. Well, good night Tikki. I'll be sleeping soundly tonight. Someone cound probably even come in the room and I wouldn't wake up tonight."

* * *

Adrien moaned in his sleep. He twitched and thrust his hips, probably penetrating some imaginary lover. In reality, his erection strained against his underwear, desperately wanting to fulfill its primal purpose. Then Adrien moaned a name. He sat up and opened his eyes but his look was vacant. Plagg had never known Adrien to sleep walk, but he'd seen some of his previous owners do it in the past. He recognized it immediately. "Plagg, claws out."

Plagg was never eager to transform, it wasn't in his nature, but he was especially reluctant to be brought under the command of a sleep talking holder. This was Adrien's feral side trying to take control, no doubt, and there was no telling what he would do with the powers of Chat Noir at his disposal. Plagg was pulled along helplessly as Chat jumped out his bedroom window and went who knows where in search of prey.

Backtracking to where they had parted at the end of patrol, Chat caught the scent of Ladybug. _Purrfect! _In his current frame of mind any girl would do, but he still recognized his favorite. If given the option, he would always choose her. Eagerly he followed the scent to her balcony. from there, he could smell her very clearly. His desired mate was in the room just below his feet. He tried the hatch leading in but found it locked. That wasn't going to stop him. "Cataclysm!"

* * *

_"Cataclysm__!"_

Tikki heard Chat's call from the balcony moments before the hatch above Marinette's bed exploded into splinters. Marinette flinched at the sudden noise and muttered something in her sleep but she didn't wake up. "Marinette!" Tikki hissed in Marinette's ear. Her owner didn't stir and Tikki was forced to abandon her attempts to wake her as Chat Noir dropped into the room. Knowing she couldn't be spotted, the ladybug kwami dropped beneath the bed. From there she could hear rustling, followed by moans, both male and female. What was Chat doing to Marinette?! Tikki wanted to help her owner, who had clearly done nothing to solicit this attention, but the fear of what would happen if Ladybug's identity were revealed kept her in place.

* * *

Chat kissed the sleeping girl laying beneath him, not caring at all that his transformation was running out. The suit wasn't going to come off without reverting him back, and he needed it off to do what he would like to her. However, he wasn't in a big rush either. He had all night to get it done, for now he was happy to explore her body with his fingers and mouth. He trailed kisses down her jaw to her neck, where he nipped and sucked until it was sufficiently marked up. Other males beware, this one was his! He worked his way further down her body until his lips touched fabric. The neckline of her nightshirt was lower than her daytime clothes, but it still halted his expedition just before her breasts. He took her nightshirt in his mouth and tore the light material, ruining the garment and exposing her breast and belly. Chat happily continued his conquest, sucking and fondling Marinette's breasts. Marinette squirmed and whimpered in her sleep, but relaxed under his touch as his transformation wore off, due to the fact that he no longer had claws to graze her sensitive skin. Now as Adrien, he finally came face to crotch with her underpants, the last barrier between himself and his goal. He showed just as much regard for that article of clothing as he had for her nightshirt and soon had his fingers up her vagina, the tattered remains of her panties strewn around the bed. His erection told him it had been restrained long enough, and he mutilated another piece of clothing, this time his own. Underwear no longer in the way, he plunged into her, working himself into a frenzy with his need to claim this girl as his own. Incorporating their act into her own dreams, Marinette thrust up to meet him, hugging him close to her with her legs when he unloaded inside of her. His wild side finally satisfied, Adrien closed his eyes and drifted back into a garden variety sleep.

* * *

A pit of dread opened itself in Adrien's stomach as he woke up. He instantly knew the bedroom wasn't his, and he recognized it as Marinette's even before he laid eyes on her. He'd been invited here many times, but this time he feared he'd forced entry to not just the room, but his friend as well. He feared what he'd see when he turned his head, but he had to know. Marinette was in the bed next to him, her clothing shredded, and herself somehow still asleep. He noted that she was naked and immediately averted his eyes. He knew he'd taken full reign of her body the night before, but he didn't want to violate her any more than he already had. His next thought was to get out of the house before anyone saw him, this wasn't anything he could hope to explain. He searched for his clothes and found them torn to shreds alongside hers. He wished his feral side could at least have more respect for property, he and Marinette both had designer clothes! Well, Marinette's were homemade, but with her, that was essentially designer. The situation would be worse if he didn't have Plagg, his transformation would cover him up and no one would know he was naked under the suit. "Plagg, claws out."

"I wish I could help you, but I don't have the energy to transform."

"Why not? I know I used you to transform last night, but I didn't use Cataclysm!"

"How do you think you got in here without her letting you in?"

Adrien peaked up at the hatch above Marinette's bed. It was essentially not there, in its place was a hole letting in the early morning sun. The property damage was continually stacking up. "I'll go find you something to eat."

He briefly wondered if he might have the luck of Marinette's parents still being asleep as well, then he remembered when Tom had come in and spoke to the class on career day. He started work at five in the morning, no doubt Marinette's father was awake and in the kitchen. Adrien's saving grace would be that Tom would be in the _bakery _kitchen. With luck, no one would see him go into the smaller private kitchen in the living unit. One more issue, he didn't intend to be caught, but if he was, it wasn't going to be with his pants down. He should at least have a hint of modesty when he went down stairs, but his underwear were destroyed beyond use. He located Marinette's underwear drawer, and rustling through it, found a pair that were reasonably unisex. These would have to do. The small girl's underwear were tight on him, but he managed to squeeze in and head down stairs. He heard voices coming from the store front, Sabine was out there too, talking to her husband. Good, now stay there. He sneaked by the doorway and opened the refrigerator. He didn't see any Camembert, of course he couldn't just find what he needed. He snatched a different kind of cheese and took it back to Marinette's room. Now was not the time for Plagg to be fussy.

* * *

When Marinette woke up, the first thing she noticed was that her hips hurt. They felt bruised and tender to the touch. Within moments she realized the other problem, she was naked. She didn't usually sleep in the nude, only on unbearably hot nights where she couldn't do enough to keep cool. Last night was not one of those nights. She knew she'd had clothes on when she went to bed last night. At first she didn't even consider the idea she could have been raped. She felt safe and secure in her bedroom, and sleep aid be dammed, she didn't think she could sleep through something like that, but when she went on the hunt for her clothes, the evidence seemed to point clearly in that direction.

She found her nightshirt and underwear on the floor, shoved part way under her bed. They were shredded beyond repair, but she couldn't concern herself with that right now. Chills shot down her spine as she realized someone had been in her room, had at very least undressed her, and most likely done more. The pain in her nether regions surely suggested more. She poked a finger into the folds of her crotch, scared to see what she'd find. There was dried blood and a crusty white substance she'd never seen before but she had a guess what it was. Her assailant had left a part of himself in her womb. Her first impulse was to run and tell her parents, then she wondered what their reactions would be. Would they believe her, or would they think she snuck a boy into her room only to make up the rape story when things went wrong? She found it hard to believe herself that someone was able to get in. Maybe if she didn't say anything it would all blow over... No, that wasn't very like a hero of her. She had to at least identify who had done this to her. If he was someone who might possibly rape more girls in their beds at night, she needed to get him off of the streets, and to do that she needed family and friends to trust and work with her.

* * *

Tikki was conflicted. She hated seeing her owner go through this. Marinette had been given a week off school to deal with her ordeal. She'd also been given four sessions with a psychiatric therapist to insure she kept in good mental health. Marinette stayed strong when she talked to the police, strong when she did return to school, even strong for the most part in front of her parents - but when she was alone in her room she broke down and cried. Tikki was the only one who knew this, she hoped clarity would bring some relief to her owner.

"I know what you did to Marinette," Ladybug told Chat.

"No use in denying it then," Chat whispered, "but I didn't want to do it. I know it sounds hard to believe, but I would never want to do anything to hurt her."

"My kwami explained to me what's going on with you," Ladybug told him. "I have some sympathy for you. I know you're not some dangerous predator, but you can't let civilians pay for the side effects of your powers. You're going to have to learn to hold it."

Chat shook his head. "I held back as long as I could. When it comes out there's no stopping it. I should be good for at least another hundred battles though, maybe by that time I'll have someone who can willingly take the edge off for me."

"In another hundred battles, we'll hopefully have defeated Hawkmoth, but you probably should find yourself someone just in case."

* * *

The guilt was eating away at Adrien. Each day he acted as a supportive friend to Marinette, sincerely telling her he wanted to help in any way possible, but weighed down by the knowledge he hadn't helped at all by putting her in this situation to begin with. The vicegrip on his conscience only tightened when it came out that she was pregnant.

He watched her plummet into depression from the news, then more slowly dig herself back out as she became first resigned and then excited by the prospect. By the time she was obvious she'd progressed to a point where she would cradle her belly and talk about how badly she yearned to meet her baby, who couldn't help being conceived of rape. Watching from the sidelines, Adrien found her too precious, the way she expressed love to his progeny whom he had forced on her.

"Marinette, I have a confession to make. I don't blame you if you want to clobber me, get me arrested, or both - I probably diserve it... but I can't hide the truth from you any longer. I fathered your child."

In response, Marinette silently stared at him. It was torture for him, wondering if her next action would destroy his life as he knew it, or if she would find it in her to let him off easy. He couldn't know it, but she purposely prolonged his moment of suffering. It _was _his punishment. She knew he felt bad enough for it already. If he wanted to be in the child's life and be known to the child as its father, she would also make him explain to friends and family what he had done; but she didn't see any point in pressing charges, he wasn't a threat to anyone else. "You never could take 'no' for an answer, could you Chaton?"

That wasn't what he'd expected, especially not with a nickname that usually only Ladybug called him. "What do you mean?"

She placed the tip of one index finger against his nose, another action reminiscent of Ladybug. "Don't you recognize me? Your feral side surely did. You've expressed interest in me so many times while on the job, and I always turned you down, but when the need hit you, you still headed straight for me. The way Tikki described it, it turns you into an animal who would pounce the first girl you see, but you used this as an opportunity to make me yours. Even when you seemingly had no control over yourself at all, you still managed to be selective, and honestly, I'm flattered."

Adrien was busy picking up the hints Marinette was dropping. When he finished, he assembled them into a picture that looked like it made sense. "You're Ladybug?"

"You're lucky I am. That's the only reason I can understand how you could do something like this and not be a bad guy. Actually, I know that you're a good guy who just has too much to deal with. But you still have to own up to what you did. For one thing, I don't know if you know this, but pregnancy spikes a girl's libido, and there's been little I could do about it. This is your fault, so I think you should try to make me feel better. Is that fair?"

In Adrien's assessment, more than fair. Act like a complete monster, get the girl? Was that how it was supposed to work? He didn't think so. He'd thought he deserved worse, but he wouldn't fight getting away with a slap on the wrist. Marinette seemed to understand that she was able to taim his inner beast, and that when it was happy, he would be good to her. Thank goodness they shared that understanding, but as he followed her to somewhere private, it seemed she might want him to release that beast just a little bit.


	14. School Play

Note - Anyone looking for serious Marichat fanfiction needs to look elsewhere. I respect that it is the most popular variation of Lovesquare, but I'm just not that into it. I'm not going to write anything that I wouldn't want to read myself. Marinette loves Adrien and he loves Ladybug, in order for Marichat to happen they both have to betray their first love. I'm not going to tell anyone else they shouldn't like Marichat, but leave me out of it. If you can't find the fanfiction you want to read, write it yourself.

Here's a relatively more light hearted one before we get back into the darker ones. This time they're already dating at the start.

* * *

"Scene five from the top."

History day was next week. Their school was participating in a fictionalized account of a battle that was believed to have occurred four hundred years ago on the very grounds where their school now stood. There was nothing romantic in the history books, but as with most theatrical productions, creative liberties had been taken to spice things up. The wives of four of the soldiers were on stage now, pleading with their husbands to return to them alive. Marinette was up there, running her fingers over her husband's stubbled chin, telling him how she loved him. Her other hand rested protectively on her swollen abdomen.

Below the stage, Adrien couldn't take his eyes off Marinette. In the context of the play, she was married to that boy from the school across town, and the baby she was proudly carrying was his. In reality, she was Adrien's girlfriend, and her pregnant belly was plastic, strapped to her flat stomach underneath her costume. Adrien was surprised how good it looked on her. With her 1600's era clothing, along with the baby bump, she was no longer as cute as Adrien was used to describing her, but no less captivating in his eyes. She looked like a woman, an attractive woman.

The stage director warned Adrien he needed to pay attention, his scene was going to be up next. That wasn't much of a problem, with Marinette out of sight back stage, Adrien was able to pull of his part without much trouble. Like that, the first dress rehearsal was done.

* * *

"What do you think, Adrien, do you like it?" When Marinette came out of the girl's changing room, she hadn't taken off the prop belly. Instead, she'd put her own shirt on over the top of it. It was worse, not only because modern clothes accentuated the belly more, but because it showed him what Marinette would look like pregnant rather than her character. She was hot. He never thought of his girlfriend as hot, she was cute, adorable, and pretty, but hot had been reserved for her alter ego, until now.

"Wha-what are you doing?" he asked her.

"I saw you staring the whole time I was up on stage, I wanted to know if you liked it on the regular me as well."

"Take it off," Adrien begged her, his cheeks flushing, "I'm not comfortable with this."

"All right." Marinette reached up the back of her shirt and undid the straps, letting the fake belly fall out of her shirt. "Better?"

"Much," Adrien sighed in relief. "Not that you didn't look good, it looked too good, and I can't risk seeing you like that until - not for several more years at least."

Marinette smirked, she felt powerful. Her boyfriend always treated her as little and cute, or as something delicate he was afraid he would break. She always felt loved, but rarely in her civilian did she recieve the awe that Chat gave Ladybug. It might be fun to see how far she could push him.

* * *

That evening, Ladybug knocked on Adrien's window. He hadn't expected to see her again today, but he went to let her in anyway. "Close your eyes," she told him. Adrien did as he was told. "Spots off," he heard his girlfriend release her transformation. "Now open your eyes."

At that point, Adrien got scared. Marinette had proven herself to be in a teasing mood today, but he was curious, so he cracked his eyes open. Marinette had on an even larger belly than earlier, this one looking like it had to be full term. "Why do you have that?" he asked her. "You know none of the props are supposed to be taken out of the theater."

"Oh, relax. No one else is using it, and I'll have it back in the prop room before opening night." She arched her back against his bedroom wall, closed her eyes, and rubbed slow circles over her protruding belly. "Mmm," she moaned, "look what you've done to me."

"Stop it, please!" Adrien pleaded, his face burning. Marinette seemed to be intent on playing a game of 'how much can I turn on my boyfriend while fully clothed' and she was beating her own high score with every move.

"Why?" she asked "I know you like it."

"Which is exactly the problem! It makes me want to wnge you and fhfh dgejhk rhfj," he mumbled incoherently.

"Oh, Adrien," Marinette came over and sat on his bed next to him. "You know I love you, and whatever you said you want to do is fine with me."

When Adrien had the courage to look at her again, his eyes were burning. "Stop playing, get out of my room right now or your real belly is going to look like the fake one."

"Is that a threat or a promise?"

Adrien had had enough, if his girlfriend didn't actually want a womb full of his seed, she'd have to beg him to get off of her some time before he was thorough. With her help he got her pants off her, but left her shirt in place, no point in spoiling the effect. He lay her flat on his bed and tried to mount her, but that same belly that was so alluring to him kept him at a distance were he couldn't properly do his thing. Before he could ask her to, Marinette flipped onto her hands and knees and offered herself to be mounted from behind. In that position, he could move his hands around to the front of her as he pounded, petting her belly full with child. At times her belly felt noticeably fake, but the sensation was wonderful if he didn't think too hard. At one point he imagined he could even feel the baby squirm. He'd gotten his sneak preview into what it would be like to satisfy each other when she was pregnant with his baby for real. "Last chance," he whispered as his balls tightened. "Do you want me to get off?"

"What point is there," Marinette moaned, "to pull out of a girl who's already pregnant?"

If she insisted on playing to the end, so did he. Aware it might not be the most responsible thing he'd ever done, Adrien simply didn't have the willpower to deny himself the ultimate pleasure while his girl was egging him on. As the waves of his orgasm subsided it occurred to him, she may have been planning something of the sort for awhile and had time to sufficiently prepare herself. "Did you go on birth control without telling me?" he asked.

Marinette giggled, "I'm not telling you, one way or the other, it's more fun to see you squirm."

Within weeks they had the test results, Marinette was pregnant. If she'd gone on birth control, it wasn't very good stuff, but Adrien was of the mind to think there hadn't been any to begin with. She'd been testing him, he decided. Seeing if he loved her enough to willingly trap himself together with her for life. He did.


	15. Hostile Takeover

Note - I don't think kwamies exist in this universe, they at least won't appear. Real world geography doesn't apply much either. I imagine this enemy country to sit roughly where Germany does in reality, but it is not meant to be Germany.

* * *

They came out of nowhere, and took over everything. Members of the previously existing government had three choices: swear loyalty to their new king, go into hiding, or die. Regular citizens were allowed to more or less go about living the way they had before with the exception that a portion of the taxes they still paid went to supporting the frivolous lifestyle of their bumbling king. There was one other thing, he didn't always take taxes in money. As he saw fit, civilians would be appointed to be his servants. The first year of service was compulsory, with the entire wages being withheld until the end of the year. Room and board were provided by his majesty. Servants who stayed on with him after their one year were permitted to leave any time, and recieved their salary at the end of every month. Those who stayed on and those who left were largely dependent on what job they had been assigned. His 'bed chamber entertainment workers' were one position that changed over every year. One male and one female entertainer were selected to serve each year. Not much was publicly known about what happened behind closed doors, but the female usually went home pregnant or with a small baby. This year the king decided he would give residents of his newest territory, France, the pleasure of serving him.

* * *

Tom took a deep breath, "we respectfully repeat that we do not have a king. Your ruler is not ours and we will not pay taxes to him."

Tom and Sabine both stood their ground in front of the tax collector. Marinette would have liked to stand by her parents, but they insisted she keep back, she was the payment required. If it was money they requested they'd probably have broken by that point and given anything they had, breads and cakes too, but a member of their family was a price they would not pay.

"We are authorized to use force to collect," the tax collector warned them. "We have tasers."

And force they used. The Dupain-Cheng family only managed to delay the king's servants two hours before they had Marinette taken away in chains. "She'll be back in a year," her family was informed. "There will be a sizable compensation for her time if she behaves, but there may not be anything if she shows this kind of defiance in front of the king."

* * *

"I cannot allow my son to go into sexual service of the king, what must I pay to keep him here?" Gabriel tried to bargain with the king's representative.

"I'm afraid we're not looking for a monetary contribution from you Mr. Agreste. Public consensus shows your son is widely considered the most attractive boy his age in the area, I believe the king would quite like him."

"I need him here, he is heir to my company. It is in the kingdom's best interest to keep my company running, we are a positive impact on the local economy."

"You will have your son back in a year. You're not intending on retiring before then are you?"

"No, but I fear a year under such conditions would either turn him gay or traumatize him to the point he won't want a relationship with anyone. Either way, it will ruin him for dating women. It might not be such a problem if I had another child who could pick up his slack, but he's my only one. It will inevitably some day fall to him to produce an heir for the family - a difficult task if he's no longer attracted to women."

The representative only laughed, "if that's your concern, you have nothing to worry about. Your son may even produce an heir while in the service. Bed chamber entertainers are solely for the king's viewing pleasures, he never lays a finger on them. His majesty was born with physical malformities that prevent him from participating in most sexual acts, but he still has the desire that he must find creative ways to sate. His majesty enjoys sex vicariously through watching his entertainers. The majority of your son's sexual experience will be with a female servant."

"Now hold on, this experience could still mentally scar him, and I don't want just any girl as the mother of my grandchild!"

Gabriel's words were not heeded. "Now say goodbye! You'll see one another again next year!"

* * *

Marinette huddled in her cage at the palace, completely robbed of her clothes, yet she covered herself as best she could without them. She had no intention of rewarding her captors by showing them her body. Let loose from her ponytails, her hair hung just past her shoulders, covering the tops of her breasts. The rest of her front side was shielded by her arms and legs. 'I'm not letting them have what they want,' she promised herself. 'I'm saving myself for a boy I love and who loves me.' The words of her inner dialogue left the boy's identity open-ended, but her minds eye showed her a clear picture of Adrien, her crush back home. She hoped it would be him who would take her, but even he wouldn't be allowed unless she could be sure his feelings were similar to her own. As for whatever boy she would be paired with by her captors - as soon as she met him, she was going to ask him to help her escape. If he agreed, then they could be friends. If he thought he was going to get lucky with her, then she'd bite off his male bits. She reiterated that plan to herself until she heard movement coming from down the hall, it sounded like the king's lackeys were bringing in another prisoner, perhaps her intended partner. A sudden shiver ran through her body and she hugged her face to her knees, refusing to look up as another person was thrown into her cage. The sounds of the guards retreated and she was left with _him_.

"Hey, are you all right?" a familiar voice asked her. "Well obviously not, considering where we are, but they didn't hurt you, did they?" He moved to crouch down next to her. "You can trust me, we're in this together after all. My name's Adrien, what's yours?"

"A-adrien," she whispered. "It can't be..." She lifted her head slightly, her face just barely peaking out from behind her screen of hair.

"Marinette?!" Adrien was apparently so surprised to see her that he tumbled backward, his rear landing on the floor with a thud. "I guess I don't have to introduce myself to you. I didn't expect I would know anyone in here, but I'm glad to see you. Wait, that sounded bad, I wouldn't wish for you to be in this situation, but at the same time, it's better than being here alone."

"I understand, because I feel the same way about seeing you." She suddenly went red with a gasp and averted her gaze.

"What's wrong?" he asked, momentarily confused. Then he realized that he'd fallen in a sitting position with his legs wide open, giving her an unobstructed view of his crotch. "Sorry," he put a hand over his masculine organ, blocking it from view.

Marinette felt an involuntary heart spread through her body. If they couldn't do anything, their captor's were going to force Adrien to use that thing on her. 'I don't mind,' whispered one voice in her mind. 'But not like this,' said another 'this isn't love.'

"So how much do you know about this place?" Adrien asked her, scooting closer to her so they could communicate in a low voice.

"Only that I'll be monetarily compensated to 'entertain' the king for a year along with a male partner - and that I have no choice about it."

"So you don't know any more than me... I learned that the king supposedly isn't going to touch us himself, but is going to dictate what he wants to see us... um... perform? on each other. That makes it a bit better at least for me, you're someone I know and trust. Can I assume you feel the same about me?"

So, that was confirmation for Marinette that Adrien at least found her more attractive than a middle aged man. Good to know, maybe there was hope for them yet. "I've thought about trying to escape," Marinette admitted. "Nothing absolutely reckless, but I don't want to do everything they say without protest. I promised myself I wouldn't let the boy touch me, and would physically mame him if he tried. This was assuming 'he' was a stranger, of course," even in their current predicament, a part of Marinette need to let him know that _he _wasn't necessarily barred from making a move on her if he was so inclined.

* * *

"The new servants know each other?" The king shook his head in disapproval. "That's what you get for being lazy, picking them both from the same area. It would have been more deliciously awkward to make two strangers mate. Do better next year."

"Your majesty, would you like us to exchange one of them?"

The king eyed both of his newest captives as they stood before him. Both were still in the nude, and were forced to keep their hands by their sides, unobstructing his majesty's view. "No, they're both quite attractive, and you're reasonably sure they're both virgins?"

"We found no record of either of them going past a first date with anyone, and our research indicates this culture is highly unlikely to become intimate on the first date. In addition, the boy has lived a fairly sheltered life, and our physical examination of the girl indicates she has not been deflowered."

"Then their first time should still be reasonably amusing for me. Cuff the girl." The guards moved to chain Marinette's hands behind her back. The position made her a little more wobbly on her feet than normal, and forced her chest out, making her moderately sized breasts appear bigger than they actually were. She wondered if that was the intention. "I want to see you be fully dependent on your partner - to eat, to bathe... and before you suggest this is sexist, know that the two of you will switch places half way through. I've learned that the female has to go first, because they always seem to have acquired a large belly by the second half of the year. It would be unfair to a woman, already encumbered by pregnancy, to have her balance restricted even further by lack of use of her hands. Besides, do you know how hot it is to see a woman with a big round belly finally get to dominate the man who put it there? You probably don't, but you will see. Join me in watching the final performance of my current servants - they're retiring after today, you know."

Another door opened on the other side of the room, and in walked a man and woman - also fully in the nude. In one arm the woman carried an infant, in the other she held the arm of the man, whose hands were out of sight behind his back - it seemed most likely they were chained there after hearing the king express his preferences. "Hand me the baby," the king commanded. The woman looked scared, but did as she was told. "Now take your mate, and stand him next to the slab." The couple moved over to a polished stone table in the middle of the room. "Now lay down on your back, legs off the edge, perfect. Now open your legs and guide him to you."

"You're going to let him pull out, right?" The woman asked as she positioned the man between her legs.

"Of course not, that's the breeding slab, you know. You've already experienced it once."

"But I've already got, oooh, one baby!" the woman protested as the man penetrated her.

"If you don't want two of them, then I can keep this one?" the king asked, referring to the baby in his arms.

"Please, no," the man spoke up for the first time. "That's our daughter and we love her, we just don't want another one at this time."

"Too bad. She's a good child, I understand why you want to keep her. I would like to keep her myself. But, even if I am royalty, you have the first pick. You made her after all. If you want to take her home with you, all you've got to do is do what I say just for one final night."

The woman put her hands on the man's hips, helping to steady him as he rutted. The threat of the king taking their baby inspired them to please him. "Wait," the king stepped down off his throne, carrying the baby. Tenderly, he placed her on her mother's chest. "Continue."

The baby found her mother's breast and started suckling. The woman curled a protective hand around her child, even as the lower half of her body resumed trying to make the baby into a big sister.

"Superbly done," the king praised. "I've always wanted to see a woman inseminated while nursing a baby. Of course, I wish I could see her with a full belly and still nursing the last one, but I've never had a servant stick around long enough for it to happen. Am I really that bad of a master? Why can everyone not wait to get out of here?"

The previous year's servants were ushered out, released from all bonds, and given street clothes for the first time in an entire year. They were free to resume life where they left off, with a baby, a substantial bank account, and their baby's other parent who had gone from a stranger to someone they probably couldn't survive without.

"They did a good job of satisfying me for today," the king told his new servants. "You can have tonight to settle in, but tomorrow night, depending on how I'm feeling, you two might get introduced to the breeding slab. Isn't it exciting?!"

* * *

"I don't see any easy way to escape," Marinette sighed, checking the perimeter of the room one final time. She tried to turn around, but without use of her hands tripped over her own feet and started to fall. Adrien caught her and helped her to sit on there edge of their bed.

"So you're giving up? Just like that?"

"Well, running in circles in here isn't going to help me. I concede for now, but... I still don't want the king to enjoy himself. He apparently gets off on other people's emotions, so we can't show him any. I've decided, unless I'm pretty sure I could win, I'm not going to fight him. That's what he wants. I'm going to obey, and be as boring as I possibly can. He seemed pretty excited by the idea of us both being virgins, and I'll bet that's because he believes it guarantees we'll have strong reactions when we're made to have our first time. Please promise me, if we end up having to do it in front of him, promise me you won't give him a good show."

"I can try, but I have no idea what to expect, so I don't know how I'll react," Adrien admitted. Then continued with something he was almost positive he wouldn't have said if he hadn't been being pestered by a boner for most of an hour, "but we could practice if you'd like."

"Get rid of our virginities sometime before tomorrow night?" Marinette's eyes glinted, "even better! He wanted virgins and virgins he won't get!" While thinking of ways to covertly defy the king got her fired up, she descended into a shyer frame of mind when her attention returned to Adrien. "So, when did you want to..."

"It's going to be painful for you no matter what, right?" he asked. "Then we should just get it over with."

"A little, yes," Marinette bit her lip. "Every girl expects to bleed a little her first time, but it's supposedly not that bad if it's done carefully."

"Then tell me anything I should do differently." Adrien shifted her onto the bed. "I want you to be hurt as little as possible."

"Okay. Well, first I need to get as wet as possible, but, um..." Marinette blushed "I don't really know how wet that is."

Adrian gently parted Marinette's thighs and inspected her vagina, which was already swollen and dripping a clear liquid thanks to the sexual display they had watched earlier. "It looks pretty wet to me, do you think it gets wetter?"

"I don't know. Would you mind touching it to see?"

Adrien raised a hand and stopped, a smirk on his face. "What would you like me to use to touch it?" He stuck out his tongue, and got close enough to tease her, but didn't make contact with her private parts.

"Use both," she requested. "I have to learn how to tolerate all of it." She pursed her lips as Adrien touched a finder to her vaginal lips. His touch burned her. He inserted a finger into her and she moaned. "Oops."

The sound she made sent a tremor through Adrien. He suddenly wished she didn't have to hold it in, he now had the urge to hear her scream his name. He swirled his finger around and she seemed to open up, spewing out more liquid as she did so. "It wasn't as wet as it could be."

"No, but now I think it is. Go ahead."

As Adrien climbed on top of her, he noticed the bassinet next to the bed - left over from the previous occupants of the room. It served as the perfect reminder for what could happen to them. He lined himself up with her and pushed the tip of his penis in. A moan escaped his mouth, he hadn't experienced that feeling. As he pushed in deeper, he could see how hard Marinette was concentrating on not making a sound. He wondered how she would fare when he reached her barrier. He found it, and slowly forced it to tear, enlargeing the hole from now on. As her hymen gave way Marinette shut her eyes, curled her toes, and that was it. No longer obstructed, he easily bottomed out inside of her. It was done, and it wasn't that dramatic. Now they knew what to expect, they could probably mask their emotions even more the next time. Now all they had to do was learn to hide an orgasm. Due to their inexperience it didn't take long at all to reach boiling. Adrien knew he couldn't hold out much longer, he just hoped Marinette was as close as he was. He leaned into her ear and whispered, "are we there yet?" trying to turn the classically obnoxious phrase into something sexy.

Marinette faintly whimpered and nodded, so Adrien gave her one final thrust to help her along and pulled out of her completely. "What are you...?" Marinette started to ask, but was interrupted as they each independently hit the release. Their natural instincts wanted to holler as they rode it out, but they swallowed most of it and only let a few whimpers as they convulsed their way back to conciousness. "Oh," Marinette breathed, understanding Adrien's action that moments ago had been so mystifying in her sexual stupor. "You remembered to... I can't believe I didn't even think about..."

"At this point, we should just accept that it's going to happen relatively soon, but there's no reason for us to hasten it on our own. We need this time to emotionally prepare."

"Um, Adrien? I need you to help me clean up."

* * *

"This is unexpected, I usually have to coax a new pair on their first time together, even if both of them have experience with other partners. I thought surely I'd have some trouble convincing such a young fresh pair, but you were so eager you started without me!"

"How did you know that?"

"Housekeeping reported cum in your bedsheets. I was looking forward to sharing the experience with you, but I can't be too mad, I never told you to wait for me. That's my fault. But you've still saved another virginity for me, right?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Tonight is supposed to be the night of breaking you in, to make sure it's something you've never experienced before, you'll have to take it somewhere else. You're both capable of being penetrated in this other place, so I've prepared a strap-on for the lady so you can take turns. Who wants to go first?"

* * *

"Ow," Adrien groaned once they returned to their room, "I can't say I've ever considered recieving anal."

"Even if he didn't say so, I think that was meant to be a punishment." Marinette felt the need to whisper, even though Adrien was the only other one in the room. "Even so, I think the change of plans spared us from..." she felt her eyes drifting to the empty bassinet "the breeding slab." Her emotions toward the concept had become confused, especially since Adrien had expressed his suspicion at its inevitability. One part of her dreaded the thought and wanted to avoid it at all costs, while her extreme other end couldn't wait - believing going through it was the only way to overcome her fear. In between she felt fear, curiosity, and denial mingle together.

"Hey," Adrien put an arm around Marinette and pulled her close. "The combination of you and me would make a pretty great person! I've been thinking alot about it in the last day, and I'm warming up to it. Wouldn't it be so satisfying to help a person like that grow up from a helpless baby?"

"I would love to have your baby," Marinette admitted, "if I were as confident as you're pretending to be. Kids are great, but they're a lot of work - have you ever babysat? I don't know if I could do it full time."

"Yes you can - we can. Remember you're not alone. Whatever happens here, we're facing it together."

* * *

"Oh! Sorry! I didn't think you would still be in here!" The housekeeper apologized, backing out of their cottage.

"It's okay. We probably should be up and around already. Sorry we can't make ourselves more... decent."

"The king has always been insistent that the bedroom help go everywhere without clothes. I've seen a few pairs come and go, I'm used to it," she waved a hand dismissively. "Though I do wish he would make an exception for in the audience of the prince."

"The... prince?"

"The king's six-year-old son. And before you say it, yes, the king is sterile, there's no way the child is actually his. His real parents are most likely the bedroom assistants from six years ago, they left without a child - which is pretty unusual."

"He took their baby away from them?" They had witnessed the king tell the previous couple that he wanted to keep their daughter. The flashback played in their heads with a far more sinister tone to it.

"I don't think it was against their will. I never knew them, but from what I've heard, they don't sound like the nurturing type. If you two have a baby, I wouldn't be surprised if the king asks you to give it to him, but he'll surely let you keep it if that's your desire."

"That's... good to know," While they weren't so certain they wanted to have a baby yet in the first place, the idea of having one taken away from them was terrifying. Their natural instincts told them to protect the little human that didn't even exist. What sort of person could in good conscience leave their own child with the king who had imprisoned them for the last year?

* * *

"Adrien?" Marinette asked one morning as the two were waking up, "look at this."

Adrien followed Marinette's gaze to a red spot on the sheets between her legs. "You're bleeding! Did you get injured in the performance last night?!"

"It's okay, it's just my period, but I'm surprised it's actually here after everything we've -" Marinette blushed deeply. It was still hard do talk openly about the now numerous times she'd been inseminated on the breeding slab.

"So all that and you're still not pregnant. I was under the impression that if you have unprotected sex you make a baby, just like that. I guess it's not that simple."

"We didn't start until I was past the fertile point in my cycle, that must be it. I'm sure I would otherwise be knocked up right now. I was so sure, that the first time you came in me, I determined I was impregnated right then and there." She giggled a little, "it actually feels a little weird now to realize I'm not."

"If it really does take time to happen, then maybe we could hold out at least three months without you getting pregnant. If you're going to give birth to my child - I'd rather you do it on the outside once we've returned home."

Marinette had to agree she'd rather go through such a life-changing event with friends and family than inside the court of the king. " - but, regardless, now, I need your help to clean up."

"Oh, right, I guess you can't very easily go anywhere with blood dribbling down your leg. I know we're not supposed to have clothing, but surely you should be allowed underwear at least while you're on your period. Wait here, I'll go ask around."

It felt like Adrien was gone for hours, but Marinette lay patiently and waited. Asside from the fact that she was dripping, her normal clumsiness was inhanced by her restraints. She'd rather await his return on the bed than on the floor. When he eventually did return, he triumphantly presented a set of underpants and feminine products. "Permission recieved - only until the bleeding has come to an end. So, uh, pad or tampon?"

* * *

The next month, when her period had promised to come again, the sheets between Marinette's legs were spotless. "Did it really happen this time?" Though her hands were held fast behind her, she instinctively tried to place her hand on her belly, directly over where she knew her womb to be. In the end, she contented herself by imagining she were able to touch her belly, and shuddered. To think there might be another living thing within her.

"Do you think there's anywhere you could get tested?" Adrien asked, "there's the first aid station. I can't think of any other sort of health services in here." He stared at her belly in awe, even though it looked the same as it always had - it might not for long.

"We could ask, but I'm pretty sure what the answer would be." So this was woman's intuition. She'd never clearly felt it before, and had even doubted its existence, but in the case of her offspring it was strong. She understood now how there were some things a mother could just know about her child - including simply knowing whether the child was there. This feeling was nothing like her mere assumptions the month before. Now that she knew what it felt like, she wouldn't mistake the feeling again.

* * *

"Look at you! It's getting hard to walk isn't it?" Marinette tried to ignore the king's words - in the past few weeks, he hadn't gone a day without commenting on her belly - specifically how it encumbered her and together with the chains forced her to ask Adrien's help on almost everything. "I'm sure you'll be glad to know what day it is. Go on, ask me what day it is."

"What day is it, Your Highness?" she humored him.

"It's the exact six-month anniversary of your arrival here! Remember what I told you when you got here? That you would be switching places half way through?"

She remembered, at the time, the idea of being kept in cuffs had been completely unbearable but her attentive partner who was so ready to help with every little thing had helped her get through it more easily than she thought. Now it would be her turn to help him as best she could, while still working around her now rather large belly.

"There you are," with a click, the metal restraints she'd become so accustomed to fell away from her wrists. Her hands fell limply to her sides, her muscles having become unaccustomed to any sort of work. She brought her hands in front of her face and flexed one finger at a time, needing to concentrate on each action. She was beginning to realize she would need a little while to relearn how to use her hands.

* * *

"Yes, your majesty, it is my professional opinion that she is far enough along to be safety induced."

"Why do I need to be induced?!" That word, in its current context, filled Marinette with terror. Was there something wrong with her? Was there something wrong with the baby?

"So that I can witness the delivery! If left alone your water would break any day now anyway, and babies always come at the most inopportune times. This way we have a little more control over it. A lot of trouble would go to waste if the baby were to come while I'm busy."

His words hammered the concept into the prospective parents - their baby existed for the king's amusement. Marinette was lain down on the same stone table where she had conceived. It wasn't a comfortable place to even think about giving birth, but it wasn't supposed to be comfortable, was it? it was called labor for a reason. A medical professional at the king's command checked over her once again and then gave her an injection. She wasn't sure how long she was laying there after that, but before too long she started to feel a ripple of pain going through her abdomen, and then - a gush of 'water' that could only be amniotic fluid.

"Is she lactating yet?" the king asked in interest.

"She wasn't last time we checked," Adrien answered.

"Then go see! If anyone's going to check her, it should be you."

He wasn't sure how he was supposed to do that with his hands chained as they were - but he would prefer that no one else touch Marinette, and he was sure she probably felt the same. He walked over to her and leaned down, Marinette preemptively put a hand on his arm, assuming he would need the help to keep his balance. He licked her nipple trying to stimulate it - nothing. He tried giving it a gentle tug with his teeth.

Marinette gasped as she felt an odd sensation coming from inside her breast. "Try that again, there's something there."

Adrien teased her nipple again with his tongue, and this time he got something. An almost sickeningly sweet liquid dribbled onto his tongue. He gathered up a few drops and opened his mouth to show the king. It felt kind of good to have an excuse to stick his tongue out at him. "Then the baby shall be fed. Let me know if any issues with lactation arrive, the child's health is of upmost concern."

For hours, Marinette struggled to be delivered of her child. Every time a strong wave of contractions hit, the king ordered Adrien to pleasure her, giving her something to mask the pain. Earlier in the process, he was made to kneel at her spread legs and lick the outermost parts of her vagina, but as the baby's head became visible, he was moved back to stimulating her breasts, getting them ready to nurse the new life.

Finally, a new born baby cried. "A healthy girl!" the attending medical professional announced.

"Marvelous!" The king cheered. "I need a playmate for my son, and since I've already got a son, I've thought about how it would be nice to next have a girl. Tell me, what is she worth to you?"

All the words she thought to respond dried up in Marinette's throat, no sooner had she given birth to her daughter, she recieved an offer to sell the baby. Nothing she could think of seemed to be an appropriate response. "She's not for sale," Adrien growled.

"Oh?" the king looked surprised. "I thought people as young as yourselves wouldn't be interested in raising a baby yet. You'll have plenty of opportunity to have more once you leave here you know."

"We've grown attached to this one," Marinette found her voice. "No amount of money is worth that."

"Most parents seem to react that way," the king noted. "I don't know how you could be that fond of her within minutes of her being born, but it can't be helped. If you won't sell, then there's no point in me continuing to ask."

* * *

After Emma was born, their imprisonment turned into a waiting game. In less than two months now, their year would be up. When their daughter was still only weeks old, the king attempted to breed them again and use the concept of a second baby as leverage to get them to sell him their firstborn. It was the same trick they'd seen him use with their predecessors, he must use that strategy every year. It hadn't worked before and it didn't work again, but it did leave them wondering if they were leaving with a single baby, or two. It was with relief and guilt that they saw their replacements arrive, scared and confused. With the newbies looking on, they endured their last night on the breeding slab, a deliberate show of what their successors had ahead of them. They felt sympathy for them, but didn't know if there was anything they could do to help - maybe they could find some way on the outside.

* * *

It was with tears in their eyes that they finally saw their homeland again. Family, friends, and even some surprising acquaintances had gathered to greet them on their return.

"You've had a baby!"

"We did," Marinette confirmed, "but that's not all. I still haven't had a period since her birth, it's definitely possible she's got a little sibling on the way."


	16. Aliens: branch 1 of 2

(rewrite)

A/n - Thanks to TheNoekk for the idea. Now, when I hear "alien abduction" the first thing I think of is The Sims 4, and in that game, it's human males that can be impregnated by aliens, so, at first I considered this might be the time to play around with MPreg. However, I scrapped that idea. I don't want to touch that topic unless I have a good idea where the baby could grow within the male body and how it could be safely birthed. Besides, the description of this story does say "where _Marinette _gets pregnant". I'm ambivalent to the idea, so let's have a poll. Should I try writing an MPreg at some point to switch things up?

* * *

Unbeknownst to all who lived their, a research vessel flitted through the skies of Paris, its cloaking devices turning it invisible against the sky. It hailed from the distant planet of *#] on a mission to study life on earth. They had so far determined humans to be the dominant race on the planet and were now interested in watching one grow up in the wild. Of course, the younger the specimen the better, but humans were remarkably protective of their offspring. They would have to tranquilize the adults in order to get anywhere near the child, and if they were going to all that effort, they might as well trace a child from the earliest moment possible - their conception. Human females, they discovered fairly easily, carried their offspring inside of their body for a short while before defecating the child and continuing to raise it out side of her body. It stumped them for several months, however, how the child got inside of it's mother in the first place.

Due to humans apparent reluctance to perform the act in public, it took some time for the researchers to discover, but carefully placed cameras in human dens revealed a strange ritual where two individuals shed their pelts and pressed their bodies against each other. Careful analysis of data revealed many females found later to be carrying offspring had been observed performing that peculiar ritual with male. A notable number of the offspring also shared physical resemblance with the same males that were observed with the mothers. That further supported the hypothesis, humans were a species that procreated by combining genetic information from two individuals of opposite gender, and that ritual must be the key to it.

The researchers wanted to know more, but humans were difficult subjects. Luckily, they appeared not to be the only species that reproduced in like manner. Many of earth's animals seemed to follow a similar pattern and were far less abashed about mating in public. The researchers picked up a pair of rabbits, who voluntarily demonstrated how they furthered their species. The male grew a mysterious appendage which he plugged into the female, and when he withdrew, there was a white fluid inside of her that wasn't there before. Sure enough, the female rabbit had kits a month later, was the male's white fluid responsible for putting the baby there? It was time to return to humans.

For this, they needed a pair that were easy to track, one that could be reliably found at the same place at the same time. They found them. A male and female ran across the rooftops every night after most humans had returned to their dens. They were young, younger than most the researchers had observed rearing children, but their bodies appeared to be sexually mature, and at times they displayed unmistakable courtship behavior. Command readily approved the two as test subjects, they would do nicely.

* * *

The last thing Adrien remembered, he'd been Chat Noir. He and Ladybug were standing on a rooftop scanning the night sky, then he felt a sting something like an insect bite and he passed out. When he woke up again, he was chained to a table in a weird light colored room. The next thing he noticed was the people around him, at least, he thought they probably qualified to be called people. The shape of their bodies was something he had never imagined and couldn't begin to describe. One came forward, extending what could best be described as its eyes so that it could examine him from up close. the same appendage then unexpectedly grabbed at his skin, feeling him from the top of his head to the bottoms of his feet. When the creature trailed its one appendage over his private parts his penis involuntarily jerked, drawing the alien's attention to it. The alien began more thoroughly investigating what it thought to be a fifth leg, except this one had a hole in it, and the female counterpart did not have one. The more it was touched the harder this appendage got until a small amount of liquid began to come out its tip. That made the aliens wonder, could they get the male to release that white liquid without putting it straight in the female?

They put a sterile bucket under his penis, they didn't want to lose anything that came out of it, this could be valuable for study! They continued to stimulate him until with a loud grunt he released a stream of the white liquid into the bucket. Excited, the researchers rushed the fluid off to their lab, chattering among themselves.

As the aliens moved away from him, he had more opportunity to look around the room. There, strapped to a table on the opposite side of the room, was Marinette. She was there watching him, but hadn't said a word, wasn't that odd? He tried to call out to her but nothing came out of his mouth. He'd just heard himself make noise moments before when he came, but apparently he could only do so involuntarily. Marinette must be in the same state.

* * *

Marinette felt a small amount of relief when Adrien finally noticed her. She was a little embarrassed for him to see her, naked as she was, but he was the only friendly being in the vicinity and she wanted to make contact with him. She'd tried calling out to him as soon as she'd seen him, but her voice was weak, she couldn't even hear it herself. He hadn't looked around much while the aliens were touching him, closing his eyes and most likely trying not to be aroused by their research. When their captors were finished and disappeared into a different part of the ship, he looked right at her and mouthed two syllables. Was that 'Mari'?

'Adrien,' she tried to respond, 'do you know where we are?'

He shook his head, either saying, no, he didn't know where they were, or that he couldn't read her lips and didn't know what she'd just said. They tried to communicate for a few more minutes, only to give up when the aliens came back into the room. This time they approached Marinette, prodding all over her body, paying special attention to her breasts and crotch, which they seemed to realize were the parts of her body most different from Adrien's. Both of them felt a nervous rush as they recognized the vile of Adrien's semen being brought over to Marinette. One filled a syringe with the semen while another poked an unfamiliar device into Marinette's vaginal opening. Still more wheeled in a monitor showing live video footage of an alien poking at the camera. It only took moments to realize that the camera was that same device that had just been inserted into Marinette. Next, the tip of the syringe was fitted inside of Marinette. The footage went momentarily dark as its light source was cut off, then brightened again as a light built in to the camera apparently illuminated her vagina from the inside. With a click, some sort of pistol was fitted to the opposite end of the syringe. Marinette felt her heartrate increase, sensing what was about to happen to her.

* * *

From across the room, Adrien watched the alien researcher pull the trigger. Marinette's eyes widened as far as possible and she opened her mouth in a silent scream. She didn't appear to be hurt, just stunned, which was much how Adrien felt himself. His eyes were drawn away from her face by the images on the monitor. He could see his own cum hit the back of her womb, where it began to drip down and out of her body. Then the camera began to zoom. It zoomed in so that the intrances to her fallopian tubes looked like giant looming caverns. It zoomed until he could make out the shapes of individual sperm swimming in his semen. Many of them quit wriggling and died within minutes, but there were yet hundreds. Some swam in circles or in the opposite direction of the rest, but most struggled their way into one fallopian tube, the one that no doubt emitted chemical signals of a mature egg. It appalled him how stupid many of his sperm were. Sure, they didn't have brains, but they only had one job, and still dozens turned asside and tried to burrow into her uterine wall. But, it wasn't any of those incompetent sperms that were going to make a baby. If Marinette was getting pregnant that day, it would be by the single strongest and fastest sperm that had been pumped into her that day out of millions. Seeing how valiantly the sperm struggled in their quest, there was a certain impulse to cheer them on, though they still weren't sure how they would feel were it actually a success. By the time the egg came into sight, the number of sperm had thinned out to the point where they were countable. Twenty, maybe thirty, made contact with the egg and tried to burrow inside. After a while, one dissapeared completely inside and all the others simultaneously stopped moving. The egg had locked them out. At that moment a new life had begun, but the pregnancy wasn't official yet. The zygote still had to make its journey down into the womb and implant there for any chance at survival. If it couldn't do that, life was over as soon as it started.

* * *

The alien researchers kept their specimens for monitoring overnight. They'd hoped to see the pregnancy stabilized before their release, but the whole process was happening slower than anticipated. At this rate, it looked like it could be days before the baby began to grow in earnest. The specimens were probably starting to get hungry as well, it was best to release them so they could go find food. It wouldn't do for their research subject to lose the baby due to being undernourished.

Having fallen asleep on the research vessel, Adrien and Marinette reawakened on the very same rooftop as where they'd been taken. They were laying on their backs, their clothes laid carefully on top of them. The aliens had been unable to figure out how to put their clothes back on them the way they had them before, but they realized that covering up in public was important to humans and did their best to respect that. As soon as they were alert enough to do so, the two rushed to dress themselves, blushing as they did so. Marinette smiled shyly at Adrien, her hand lingering somewhere over her belly.

"So, how long do you think we've been gone?" he asked her. They needed to start discussing this somehow, but it was tough to know where to start.

"It's light out," she noted. "It was at least overnight, but it sure felt longer."

They would soon learn that they'd been gone for 32 hours. The sun had just set at the time they were kidnapped. One full day had passed while they were being experimented on, then they'd been kept until daylight before being released. Having been kidnapped as their alter egos, the two were finally able to put two and two together about each other's identity, especially since they had to transform to get off the roof. Once the police discovered the missing teenagers to be alive and heard their story, they were compelled to be seen by a doctor. They were found to be unharmed, save for the fact that the entrance to Marinette's womb had been blocked off by a seal of unknown substance. It didn't appear to be harming her, and appeared impossible to remove save by surgery, so it was decided to leave it alone for the time being and see what happened. The plug was considered to be non-organic and some sort of alien technology, most likely there to deter her from removing the camera from her body.

* * *

The aliens kept watch on their cameras with bated breath, through study of other earth mammals, they had some concept of a pregnancy not taking. As a zygote traveled down the fallopian tube it's single cell divided and it became a blastocyst. When the blastocyst reached the uterus, there had to be enough uterine membrane for it to successfully anchor. Only then would the mother's body be triggered to raise the production of progesterone, effectively starting the pregnancy. They had confirmed their subjects had sufficient lining for implantation, but that wasn't necessarily a given. If the mother's body sensed the blastocyst to be nonviable, it would flush out the lining and force the blastocyst out of the body. The plug inserted in the female's uterus was programmed to open under such circumstances - forcibly keeping detached lining in her for too long could be harmful to the female's health, and they wouldn't gain much by researching a baby that was doomed to die well before it could ever be born. If that were to happen, all they could hope to do was either recapture the pair to breed them again, or wait for the female to mate on her own terms. Curiously, though, many humans appeared to hold off on mating well past the point they were physically capable of it. If they wated for her to do it on her own, it could be years.

Luckily, the blastocyst did implant. It appeared humans were simply slower at the process than smaller mammals. Like any good researchers, the aliens had planted tracking devices on both specimens and were able to follow them by arial drone through their daily lives. Even though no change were visible from the outside, the female seemed to know it when she was pregnant. The moment her baby was settled into the spot where it was to grow, she placed her hand over her belly with a contented smile.

There were changes in the male's behavior as well. Though he still parted ways with her at night, he spent more time with her during the day than he ever had before. Sensors installed in his tracking device monitored his vitals, and reported spikes in his blood pressure any time she was around an unfamiliar male. Knowing that they had a child on the way held extreme power over the minds of both subjects.

The female, they noted, modified her diet. Humans were able to eat an absurd range of foods; and this one had been observed to have a varied diet prior to her pregnancy. They had observed before that females with child were usually more choosy about what they ate, and this one followed suit. They couldn't for the life of them figure out why. A few researchers came up with various hypotheses, but they weren't able to prove any of them. Did pregnancy alter the mother's senses so certain foods became unappealing? Were some of the foods adults could eat toxic to their young and the mothers somehow knew that? They would have to research this more at a later date.

Back on the intrauterine monitor, magic was happening. The nondescript blob of cells multiplying inside the egg burst free from the protien coat caging them in, in certain terms, the egg had hatched. From there the cells began to separate into distinct layers. The individual cells were dividing rapidly, doubling their mass roughly twelve times in a single day. Before too long, the researchers were forced to zoom out to keep the entire mass in their sights. By the time the sun had risen and set ten times there was a translucent yellow ball, not unlike a raw egg yolk. The body of the embryo grew parallel to it, curving around the sac. From there the structure elongated and folded in on itself until around the twentieth day a dark red spot appeared in the midsection. Lighter red rays led off of it in every direction, this was the baby's heart. At this point the embryo looked more like a fish or lizard than a human - it had what looked like a tail and even a dorsal fin! By the time the moon had completed a cycle, the part that they knew would become the baby's head was larger than the rest of it and flopping down over the body, directly over the area where slightly indentations suggested where arms would come in. Nerves too were establishing their connections through the body, the development of earth creatures was amazing!

Somewhere around the fortieth day the beginnings of legs appeared, followed soon by rudimentary eyes and ears. Months passed and over time the tale shortened, the baby grew skin, it was looking more and more like what they'd come to expect of a human. It had now become a fetus. It was small, stretched out, and more frail looking than a full term baby, but it was no longer hard to imagine how it would transform itself in the final months. The greatest mysteries had been solved.

* * *

The city was abuzz with news of the so-called alien baby. Both of the abducted teens claimed it was their biological child, that the only thing otherworldly about it was the circumstances of conception, but conspiracy theories still abounded. People speculated that the baby would have green skin, a balloon of a head, and tendril-like fingers. Skintone aside, it sounded like most of the predictions would come true if the baby happened to be born premature. A petition was put forward to have the birth on live television, and it gained enough traction for a local news network to make an offer on it. Adrien and Marinette, now engaged with the consent of their families, declined the offer, but agreed to introduce the baby publicly as soon as they were discharged from the hospital. There were still those who suggested that gave them time to switch out the baby, but the offer at least satisfied the masses. So, it was decided. They would show off their perfectly normal baby to the world, disappoint everyone who had hoped to see an alien, and fade back into normalcy with maybe a hunch but no proof that alien researchers were still watching their every move.


	17. Aliens: Branch 2 of 2

A/n - For anyone who read the first chapter within the first few days of it coming out, I've edited it. I hope the extended ending is more satisfactory. As for the responses to my last author's note I was pleasantly surprised by the quantity of suggestions that came in, several of qwhich I do hope to use in the future. While no one said outright that they wouldn't read an MPreg, I was advised against it as the genre often comes out bad. I agree with that, I've read some trashy MPreg before, but that also reminded me of one of my goals in creating this book - covering as many scenarios as possible. I can't rightly ignore this variation. There's not much to loose, if it comes out bad that was expected, if it comes out good we can break the glass ceiling. So, here goes nothing.

* * *

Marinette was nervous, she'd helped with the operation many times before, but this would be the first time she would perform it herself. The first time she would be contributing her own genetic material to the project. The first time that making a mistake could grievously injure or kill a human being. She was nervous, but she had to do this for her people.

Her people had a problem. On their home planet, the birthrate was incredibly skewed. Ever since their biome had been chemically altered one hundred years ago, roughly ninety-five percent of babies born were female. At first it wasn't seen as a huge issue. While it did mean most heterosexual women couldn't hope to find a romantic partner, there were at least enough men to find a donor to help them have children. Since most women never even had the opportunity to have sex with a man, they convinced themselves as a culture that it was undesirable. Artificial was _the _way to have babies. Anything touching the inside of a person's body needed to be thoroughly sanitized through boiling or bleaching, sex was grose and unsanitary! Through their new way of thinking, they were able to keep the population steady, but with so few males fathering all the children, it only took a few generations to realize they were still in trouble - suddenly, most any of the eligible young people were each other's half-siblings and cousins! Their civilization had long since known the dangers of repeated inbreeding. If they chose to take that route the first few generations would be mostly all right, but with every generation the amount of debilitating birth defects would rise until such maladies became the definition of their society. They _needed _to find new blood.

Scientific discovery exploded as it only can when numerous lives depend on it. Space exploration became a priority. Life was discovered on countless other planets until finally, they discovered humans - a race genetically similar enough to themselves to interbreed. For twenty years already, a colony had lived in orbit of the earth for the sole purpose of collecting fresh genetics. A woman could spend years selecting the father of her child, arranging his capture, creating new life with him, and harvesting it when ripe. If done right the process could be complete in under a year, but all sorts of incidents could cause an attempt not to yield a baby that could be sent back to their homeland, and thus force the woman to start over.

When the expedition first arrived in earth's airspace, the women used earth men only for their seed. After fertilizing the embryos in a laboratory they implanted them into their own wombs to grow. However, this was a slow process. The space station could not support more than a dozen grown women at one time - creating a pressure to get each woman pregnant and send her home as soon as possible. That, coupled with the fact that the journey between their home planet and Earth took three months one way created a logistics nightmare. Rich women back home began commissioning surrogacy so they wouldn't have to make the trip to Earth to have a baby. All these women would have to do was have their eggs frozen and sent away - then wait about a year for the surrogate to deliver the baby. Since they had to make the journey anyway, many surrogates opted to try having their own baby at the same time. This meant more babies being implanted into the same womb, and more opportunity for error. It happened, an inexperienced surgeon trying to space out multiple embryos with enough room to grow missed her patient's womb completely and planted the baby in her abdominal cavity. To the surprise of many, the baby grew with little problem, and though it had to be surgically removed at the time of "birth", the operation went smoothly with the mother making a fast recovery. That gave some the idea - babies could be put into the abdominal cavity on purpose; and that anatomy was not unique to females, why not use their sperm donors as vessels as well?

Within a few years it became common practice: capture a man, plant a baby inside of him, monitor him, and catch him again when it was time to take the baby out. With male vessels virtually unlimited on Earth's vast population, production increased exponentially - but with it came a whole slew of problems. The Earthlings freaked out the first time a man was impregnated by alien abduction. The human race took up arms against the invasion and the only way the aliens could find out of a war was to perform an extensive memory wipe on the human race. With the scar from his cesarean expertly healed, the first man forgot he'd ever had an alien child. After that, the alien's were far more careful. They hypnotized each man they captured into thinking no one would believe him if he revealed that he'd been abducted by aliens. Out of fear for his own reputation, most men kept their mouths shut and hid their pregnancy - then willing surrendered the baby to the mother when it was born. However, there were still sometimes men who were unwilling to give up the baby.

Marinette's father was one such man. Yes, Marinette herself was actually a hybrid - she had a human father. She was unique in that neither one of her parents was willing to give her up. Men who were brave enough to stand up to the aliens were rare, but when it happened, the mother usually cut her losses and let the father keep the baby - not Marinette's mother. She'd attempted to bargain for their daughter and had fallen in love in the process. They made an agreement, she would not return to her home world but would raise Marinette on the space station, close enough for them to visit her father regularly. Before long their agreement was modified again so that Marinette and her mother moved in with her father to free up living quarters on the space station - so Marinette was the first hybrid to live in both worlds.

Before puberty, Marinette was raised as a fairly normal human child. She was friends with other neighborhood children, but while they all went to school, she commuted with her mother to the space station where she learned the trade of a fertility technician. Life became more complicated when she reached menarche. Marinette herself was lucky enough not to be objectified, her mother's people did treat her as one of them - a person with value, but once her ovaries started functioning, her superiors immediately saw them as a commodity. Hybrids were the salvation of their race; any hybrid who was physically able should breed. It was their civic duty. At fifteen years of age, Marinette had caved to pressure and picked a mate. He was a minor celebrity, and Marinette's mother scolded her for picking someone that conspicuous, but Marinette insisted that wasn't the reason why. She explained that she'd met him quite a few times when out with Earth kids her own age. He was a real sweetheart, and she wanted her children to be like him. That was her only reason to want him to be the father. Her mother had to be supportive in the end. After all, she'd fallen in love with a human herself.

With her target picked out and his schedule mapped, Marinette had her eggs harvested under the knife of a senior technician. It was a simple procedure - within days she was up and ready to continue with the next phase of the plan.

Her beloved Adrien had a photoshoot in the same place in the park at the same time every week. There was always a fifteen minute interval when props were being changed, that would be the perfect time to nab him. Hunting was best in the winter, it got dark early while the people were still out and could easily be attracted by a light. It worked like a charm on Adrien. When they shone it near him he followed it like the son-of-a-moth he was. Once he was in range they beamed him up. His feet flailed a bit once they were lifted off the ground, but he stayed in a hypnotized trance as he was pulled higher and higher off the ground. He floated right through the open floor off the spacecraft about his head, then the floor closed and the light turned off, dropping him with a 'bump'.

Marinette immediately slipped her arms under the stunned boy's shoulders - it felt so good to have him in her arms at last! She shook herself from her reverie and pulled him up onto the operating table. Her hands were shaking, but she reminded herself that this was the easy one - the difficult operation would be at the end of gestation. Somehow, she managed to unbuckle his belt and pull down his pants along with his underwear. She scolded herself for her inability to stop her violent quaking - if she didn't have a steady hand she could hurt him! As she masturbated him her vagina got wet, it insisted it was ready to breed in the old way, but Marinette pretend not to know what was happening to her body - her people did not have sex, they crafted babies through science! She got Adrien to spill his seed into the waiting dish and took it over to the microscope. To her relief, his sperm had a good motility percentage - not that they would be swimming anywhere, but it proved they were healthy. While she could technically fertilize her egg with an unhealthy sperm, she would be charged with medical malpractice. Unhealthy sperm would create the deformed baby that this entire project was engineered to avoid. If his sperm weren't up to snuff, she would be obligated to release him and pick a new mate. She was thankful that wasn't the case. She sorted out the best looking sperm and moved them into the dish with her egg with her microacopic tools. When she switched the dishes under the microscope, she could see the sperm trying to struggle toward the egg. They had clearly picked up on the hormone signals, but there was nothing to swim in. She picked one up and set it on the egg, it immediately set to work burrowing inside. Heat spread through her at the sight, her instincts somehow associated even this conception with sexual gratification.

She attached a clean needle to a syringe and pushed out all the air. Next, she placed the tip of the needle under her microscope and guided it to the zygote. Pulling back the plunger, she drew it into the syringe. Now there was only one step left. As she approached Adrien she flicked the needle a few times. It would be bad if she injected extra air to his insides, she wanted to cause him as little discomfort as possible. After placing the new life inside him, she couldn't help but kiss the beautiful boy on top of his head. She secretly hoped a shared child would bring them together more than just physically, the same as she had for her own parents.

* * *

Even if he knew differently somewhere in his mind, Adrien explained it all away as a dream. Perhaps aliens were out there somewhere, but they would be on their own planet, not hiding on Earth, kidnapping humans. Even if they were hiding on Earth kidnapping people, there was no reason they would look like a girl he'd met, and if he remembered correctly, even sort of flirted with. He couldn't put a name to her, or place exactly where he'd seen her, but he knew he'd seen a girl like that while out with his friends. Classic dream, taking some acquaintance and inventing bizarre scenarios around them. He remembered all of it, the way she fondled him, then went off to the side of the room where he could only hear her, and gave him a shot when she came back. He'd been awake the whole time, but he couldn't move, not even turn his head to see what she'd been doing at the side of the room. Not that it was important anyway, _it was just a dream._

* * *

Nothing happened in those first few months and Adrien was further able to convince himself it was all a dream. He saw the girl again and this time made sure to get her name, _Marinette. _She acted shy with him, while she didn't seem particularly nervous around his friends. He didn't think he'd been staring or anything, but he must have done something. Whatever he'd done without realizing, it must have been that dream that caused him to act weird around the girl.

Almost four months in, he could no longer ignore the bloating in his stomach. He realized he'd felt it for some time, but he didn't want to think there could be anything wrong. Every time he even thought about bringing it up to the doctor, he thought of his "dream". The idea of what a doctor would find scared him too much to want to know. What a doctor would say if it were what he thought scared him even more. If anyone else described being in the situation where he found himself he would have questioned their sanity, or at least thought they'd watched too many science fiction films. Maybe he should treat his own perceptions with the same grain of salt. How much sci-fi had he consumed recently? Surely not enough to give him such delusions. He wondered, could sweet Marinette even be involved with something like that? Was she even human? He had to coinsider the possibility of that. The more he thought about it, he began to hope she really was from some other planet. Her behavior would be easier to excuse if she were from a completely different culture. If she was indeed human, and familiar with human customs, then it painted her behavior in a more nefarious light. He realized then that he liked her and he wanted her to be someone he could empathize with. He made it his mission to find out more about her and what she had done to him.

* * *

At first glance, Marinette's family looked normal. Father, mother, and daughter all living and working under one roof. The first curious thing he noticed was that Marinette lived only a few doors down from his school, but that she didn't go there. No matter, she could be homeschooled, he himself had been until two years previous. Yet, every day, if he peaked in at her family's bakery during lunch, she wasn't there. Where - other than school - would someone his age be going every weekday with such regularity? He determined he would have to catch her in the morning one day before she left. One day he left home thirty minutes early, he told his father's assistant he wanted extra time to study for a test. He was pretty sure that was a classic lie for teenagers, but it was also hard to disprove. That was _why _it was a classic. He was relieved to see Marinette was still there, time to see where she went - but she didn't seem to be in a hurry to leave. As time went on, it was Adrien who was in more of a hurry to go - he didn't want to be late to school. He almost gave up and left, but school was so close by - he could make a dash for it and get there in just a few minutes. Finally, Marinette and her mother headed out and around the side of the building. They were almost on top of Adrien's hiding spot! Then he understood why they went somewhere out of view from the street. A beam of light came down from directly above them and lifted them up into the sky, in broad daylight! It was like the classic alien abduction except there didn't seem to be any abduction to it. Marinette and her mother had gone expressly for the purpose of boarding the ship. Assuming that this was a normal day for her - she spent all day on an alien ship? He hurriedly left for school, but there wasn't much chance he was going to concentrate.

* * *

As soon as school was out, he was drawn back to the bakery. Marinette was usually there when he went by, but this time she wasn't. 'Working late?' he commented to himself, 'I wonder if that means someone's getting abducted tonight.'

No one else was in the bakery, just himself and the baker. The large man kept glancing at Adrien every time he brought a tray out of the kitchen, and it was making him nervous. "Looking for something?" the man finally asked him.

"Uh, yeah," Adrien focused his attention on the display case full of pastries. "Sorry, I'll make up my mind soon."

"You've got more on your mind than pastries, don't you? Your reality has been turned upside down recently if I had to guess."

"How could you know?"

"I recognize your behavior. It's typical of a boy trying to come to terms with what the aliens did to him."

"It's that obvious?"

"Only to a man whose been through it. So I'm right, the aliens abducted you?"

"Four months ago..." Adrien whispered. "So, what happens to me when time's up?"

"They're going to want the baby back. They're going to come to take it from you. If you want to make it all just a memory, that will be your chance to go back to the way things were before. For me, it wasn't that easy. There was no way I was going to give up Marinette."

"So, Marinette she's... excuse me for the weird question, but you're from this planet right?"

"Yes, I'm human, and Marinette is a hybrid. Her mother is from another planet, but her physical characteristics are indistinguishable from what we understand humans to be. I suppose you could argue that she's also a human, just from a different planet."

"And... you really know for sure that she's biologically your daughter? What about her 'mother' really being her mother?"

"Sabine's told me some things about why they do it this way. Their people don't have enough men to keep the population steady without inbreeding, which is why they've resorted to earth men. As far as they're concerned, the single most valuable thing you have is your DNA, there's no way they would use anyone else's in crafting a baby. As for my experience, yes, I know certainly that Sabine is Marinette's biological mother. For the most part, technicians only use their own genetic material in operation. Only the senior technicians carry out surgeries using the eggs of contracted clients. You can get a pretty good idea by the age of the one who operated on you, unless it was an older woman, it was likely her own egg."

"Then," Adrien whispered to himself "if I can be sure it's really mine, and she's a hybrid, then the baby is only a quarter alien."

Tom stiffened. "_She's _a hybrid? You don't mean my little girl..."

Adrien nodded, "it was Marinette, no doubt. I'd actually met her beforehand through mutual friends, so I recognized her."

"I knew they were hiding something from me," Tom groaned, "but I had no idea they were breeding her." Around a year ago, they wanted to send her back to their homeworld to be married off, but Sabine made a deal to keep her here. I thought that was the end of it - I guess not. Are they really that desperate to get a baby from her? Her mother must have had to approve of this, but she kept it from me. I will have to have a conversation about this when they get home. I'm sorry you've had to get involved in this. If you want to know more, come by again after I've had the chance to talk with them."

* * *

Tom must have had a serious conversation with his daughter. The next time Adrien saw Marinette she pretended not to see him back. It was a stark contrast from the attentive stairs he usually recieved from her. From the way she dashed off around a corner immediately after noticing him, he could tell she must be mortified. He was the victim here, but curiously, he started to feel sorry for her. She was just a rank and file half alien hybrid working under the command of her superiors - maybe they could work things out.

He hardly saw her at all in the next months. Even if he stopped by the bakery when she was there, she would run into the kitchen or upstairs and refuse to come out until he was gone. Tom offered to invite Adrien in amd try mediating a conversation, but Adrien declined. Theirs would be an incredibly awkward topic to have the girl's father sit in on, even if he did have experience in the matter. As his condition became harder to hide, Adrien began to wonder about how they were going to 'harvest' the baby. Soon the amniotic sac would break and the baby would signal its readiness to be born, but Adrien would have no way to respond. His body had no orifice from which to push a baby. If left alone the baby would either die and petrify inside of him, or would burst him open like in one of those old horror films, most likely killing him in the process. With those as his alternatives, it was in his best interest that he be abducted again, and finally it happened. A beam of light found him from the sky. Magnetized, he was pulled up into the ship and like before, he was set into a state of paralysis. There he saw Marinette, looking as nervous as he felt. He wondered what she had to be nervous about, then he remembered. It was the role of the technician who had contributed her DNA to deliver the baby, and Marinette had never done it before. He'd been told that she'd practiced over and over on manikins, but this was her first time working this specific operation. It was far more complicated than the implantation at the beginning of the pregnancy, and was potentially lethal if done wrong. Adrien felt sick at the prospect of having a novice cut him open, but at least there would be more experienced technicians standing by. Their interests didn't line up exactly, but at least he knew they didn't wish him any harm - they would step in if anything went terribly wrong. More than that, he trusted Marinette. She would take great care not to hurt him, he was sure.

He felt nothing. He knew she was cutting him open, but asside from the occasional sounds of her working he could perceive none of the goings on. His body wasn't moving an inch, his vision was fixed on the ceiling above his head. Then, a baby's cry. He vaguely saw Marinette out of the corner of his eye, pass a squirming pink bundle off to someone else. It was a strange sensation, knowing what just happened shouldn't be real and yet it was. He wanted to see the baby, but he could neither turn his head to look or verbalize his request. As Marinette proceeded to patch him up, a multicolored swirl was projected onto the ceiling above him and low tones began to play. This part scared him the most - they were trying to hypnotize him. He'd studied up on hypnotism, and thought he'd learned it was a very real science, he also learned it wasn't possible to hypnotize someone against their will. As long as he was aware of what was happening and resisted he would be fine.

* * *

Adrien couldn't believe it, he could hardly find a scar, and that from an amateur who had never performed the operation before. This alien race was very highly advanced in medical science - if only they would contribute their skills in hospitals on earth. People would willingly help with the aliens problem if they could have that return. He didn't say anything immediately to Marinette the next time he saw her, and her behavior surprised him. She was friendlier than she'd been for quite a while. She was talkative and she only blushed a normal amount. Then it occurred to him, she thought his memory had been erased.

"So, Marinette?" he asked her when he finally got her by herself, "how's the baby?"

Her eyes went wide, "the hypnosis!"

"I rejected it. You know it's not possible to hypnotize someone against their will, right? I can't forget my child any more than your father could forget you."

"I'm sorry," Marinette turned to run but Adrien grabbed her wrist.

"It's okay, we can talk about this. ... Please... let's talk."

"Okay, what do you want to know?"

"How's our baby? Could I see him? Her?"

"He's just fine. Why do you want to see him, aren't you glad it's over?" She had hoped in the beginning that having a baby would bring them together - that they could be something like her parents. Now, the attention he was showing her put her into a panic.

"I'm glad I don't have to carry him around inside of me anymore, if that's what you're asking, but now I want to see the fruits of my labor."

Marinette seemed hesitant, but she lead him to her home, and showed him upstairs where the baby was kept. Beaming, she picked him up in her arms and cradled him to her.

"You seem happy," Adrien commented.

Marinette nodded, "I love him! Thank you so much!"

An idea started forming in Adrien's mind, how he might secure his share of rights to their child and reestablish his masculinity all at once. "If you like that one so much, would you want more?"

Marinette thought about it, she quite enjoyed this one she already held in her arms. and her superiors would be quite pleased with her if she had more without them asking. "Yes."

"And would you want me to help out with that?"

"Would you?"

Adrien nodded, "Just one thing. On earth, the female usually carries the baby, did you know that? Your body's more built for it than mine."

"I know, but I couldn't very well inject a baby into myself."

"I could put a baby in you."

"You know how to do that? Um, okay, I can probably arrange a time when we can borrow the operating room."

"I don't know how to use those things, but I know another method. I can show you how humans usually make a baby." He took the baby from her and placed him gently back in his crib, next he scooped up Marinette and lay her on her back on the most readily available furniture. From there, he unbuttoned her pants and slid them off of her. Marinette made no objection, but watched him, confused. He dropped his own pants and manually stimulated his sex organ just enough for it to get a little bit hard. Then he climbed on top of her and rubbed against her, trying to get her stimulated as well. Even if Marinette didn't understand, her body did, her vagina grew wet and swollen. When he was confident he could proceed without hurting her, he lined himself up to enter her.

"Wait!" Marinette's voice was shaky when she asked him, "what do you use to clean your penis?"

"..." that, if anything, was not the question he was expecting, "soap and water."

"Then I can't allow you to put it in me. You should never put a non-sterilized instrument into someone's body. Soap and water isn't good enough in that case. You need to wash it with bleach or boil it."

Adrien winced at the idea of boiling his penis. How could this girl be so knowledgeable in some aspects of reproduction and yet so ignorant in others. "Trust me, if your intention is to have a baby, you don't want a sterile penis. It won't work. Your vagina isn't as sensitive as parts deeper inside your body. It will be fine, besides it's easier this way, no one needs to be cut open."

"But my people just don't do it like that..."

"Your people. Aren't you half human too? Why not try it like your other people? Just once, if you don't like it you can go back."

"O-okay," Marinette spread her legs a little, showing him her consent, "go on."

Adrien took the opportunity and slid into her, making it as sensual as he possibly could. It was a good deal for him if he got her to enjoy this. It fascinated him how sex was such a foreign concept to this girl, so that he (with the second hand knowledge common to his age) seemed like the expert.

"Mfh," Marinette moaned, "how many babies will you give me?"

"As many as you want," he promised. It surprised him that she was already thinking beyond number two, but he didn't need to ponder his answer for long. He'd decided a while ago that he liked this girl, and if this was how to make it work out, why not go for it?

"Then, as many as we can comfortably raise." She'd been raised to believe her people's only hope was through hybrids, and that so far they were failing to generate as many as were needed. Now, here was a wonderful boy who offered to have as many children with her as she wanted, it would be stupid for her to refuse. Here was her chance at securing the perfect life partner and fulfilling her duty to her country all at the same time. "We can take turns bearing them!"

"About that... we'll see." Adrien hoped he'd be able to convince her to carry the rest of the children however many that may be. She'd caved pretty easily to the idea of getting pregnant herself, she was already talking about potentially doing again, so maybe he would have luck in that regard. They could talk about that when they were ready for their third child, right now, they were still busy making the second one.

* * *

A/n - There! That way the story is still true to the book description, "Marinette gets pregnant", they just happened to both get pregnant this time around. I had to try it, and personally, I'm somewhat pleased with how it came out. Next time we'll be back to something a little more... traditional?


	18. Rebuilding

A/n - Warning: mentions of suicide and cutting. This is my take on a fanfiction I read a few years ago, I don't remember where. The premise has stuck with me, so I decided I'll rewrite it with a happier ending - and a baby.

* * *

"Goodbye."

Marinette froze. Something about the way Adrien said it sent shivers down her spine. She couldn't quite explain what was wrong with him saying goodbye to his friends before he left school, but it didn't feel like him.

"I love you, Marinette," he looked her directly in the eyes, "always remember that."

Now she knew something was wrong. He'd implied it, but this was the first time - at least since their identities were revealed to each other - that he'd outright said it (to her civilian form no less) and he'd just out and said it with little context. The more she thought about it, th e more it sounded like something someone would say just before doing something horrible. Once she came to the conclusion that he definitely needed to be stopped, Adrien was gone. In a panic, Marinette took off running in the direction of Adrien's house.

* * *

When Ladybug let herself in the window at Adrien's house, he was nowhere in sight. She was just about to head downstairs looking for him when she heard someone bumping around in the bathroom. Hurriedly, she opened the door, in time to see Adrien with a kitchen knife to his wrist.

"Adrien!"

Startled by her sudden call, Adrien jerked the knife, accidentally slicing himself in the process. The wound wasn't as deep as he had intended, but it was jagged and bled profusely. Marinette was to him in an instant "what have you done?!" It looked like he could bleed out from this, and even if that was his plan, she wasn't going to let him. She cast about the bathroom and spotted a bath towel neatly folded on the counter. Any other time, she wouldn't want to destroy a perfectly good piece of cloth, but it would have to be sacrifice. With a strength born of adrenaline she shredded it in her bare hands and bound the strips tightly around Adrien's wound.

"Ow!"

"You did this to yourself," she growled, "how could you?!"

"I didn't expect for you to show up when you did."

"It's an awful good thing I did! Who were you going to burden with finding your body? Your bodyguard?" Somewhere in her mind, Marinette knew that Adrien was at the lowest moment of his existence and that he needed empathy, but she couldn't help being angry with him. Did he know how much pain he caused to her when he finally said 'I love you' and tried to commit suicide in the same day? She at least knew what drove him to it. It was just shy of two weeks since Chat Noir had called Ladybug in hysterics. He told her he'd found Hawkmoth and that it was no other than his own father. She'd commended him for his tough decision, prioritizing the good of the public over his family. In an act of trust she had revealed her identity to him just before the final fight, and had promised she'd be there for him in any way she could be. She'd admired how stoic he had been even when the authorities caught wind of their fight and moved in to make an arrest. After Gabriel and Nathalie had both been taken into custody, the police thoroughly searched the house, unwittingly pulling the plug on Emilie's life support in the process. Hours later, paramedics pronounced her dead. When he realized that he was going to be locked up for a long time, rather than allow his son to go into foster care, Gabriel formally requested that Adrien be emancipated. The court agreed, but needed time to process, and requested that the adult closest to Adrien who hadn't been involved in the crime should check up on him daily until he could legally function as an adult. His bodyguard, known to most as The Gorilla, was chosen for the task.

"I didn't think that far ahead," Adrien admitted. "Marinette, I didn't want you to see this - I love you - but, please let me die. Let me die with my mom."

"N-o, w-ay," Marinette was crying so hard she could hardly talk, but she hugged him close to herself. "I'm n-ot l-o-s-ing you." She inhaled deeply, trying to speak more clearly. "Anything to get your life back on track. If it's humanly possible, I'll give you anything!"

"You can't. I appreciate you, but I can't live without my family. My mom's dead, and I disowned my dad. There's no one else. You can't bring my family back."

"You're wrong. I can't restore the family you had, but I _can _give you a family."

"How? 'My friends are going to be my family?' It's not the same. I can't."

Marinette put a hand under Adrien's chin and made him look at her. "You can. If it's what you need, I will _make _you a family. All I need is a little cooperation from you."

Adrien finally got what she meant. A bit of his old life passed through his eyes for just a moment, long enough for Marinette to see it. "I can't ask you to do that."

"But you can ask me to give you up?! Which do you think would hurt me more?"

"Giving me up?" he guessed. He could tell that was the answer she wanted.

"Damn right!" she surprised him with her venomous demeanor. "Do you really love me?"

"Yes." It was one thing he could say certainly. He knew he couldn't leave without her knowing that for sure.

"Then show me. Before you do anything else, make love to me."

"Are you sure you want that?" It would be a nice way to spend his last day, he thought.

"Please. I need to know what it feels like with the one I love. If you're not going to be here much longer..." Marinette knew exactly what she was doing. She was stalling. Earlier that day she'd held no thought of getting pregnant or even giving up her virginity in the immediate future, but she had no doubts about it. She'd wanted, since before he seemed to reciprocate her feelings, to grow old with Adrien. _Anything _to keep that dream alive. She would distract him from his thoughts of suicide, a minute at a time if she had to. If she could keep him alive long enough, she knew he would recover.

Hormones won the day. Adrien left the knife in the bathroom and followed Marinette into his bedroom. He shed his clothes as she shed hers and knelt on his bed with her knees splayed invitingly. Her posture was not yet one conducive to what they had planned, but one that showed off her most intimate places. "You're beautiful."

"So are you," she sighed, "or, handsome?" Looking at him looking at her with both love and lust, she would have been enjoying herself if it weren't for the recent memory of his attempted suicide. She longed to forget it, put it behind them, but she couldn't. For his sake, she couldn't put it from her mind until she could be sure the notion had been cleared from his. She had two strategies for the night. One was to make him enjoy himself, enough, but not too much. She didn't want him to be satisfied, she needed him to want more. Her other plan was to guilt him - he couldn't leave after what he'd done to her. It sounded cruel when she said it to herself, but she had to buy time, long enough for her to think of a more solid recovery plan. She drew him in, first with her gaze, then, when he was close enough, with her legs. She wanted to absorb him into her body and never let him out, there was no way he could hurt himself in there, but sadly, she knew it wasn't possible. She'd have to release her hold on him soon and trust him to stay close to her, but she was determined to take a piece of him for safe keeping before then.

Nothing mattered to Adrien anymore. He'd made up his mind. He had no future. All that was left was to enjoy his first and last time being intimate before he went to sleep forever. He wanted to tell Marinette that none of this was her fault, and at this point, the only way he could do it was by fulfilling her final wish of him. He poured his love into her body - that's how he saw it. He didn't even consider that they might have just made life, because life no longer held meaning for him.

"If you leave me to raise a baby by myself, I'll never forgive you."

_Baby. _Only then did he remember their conversation from earlier, that they had the physical potential to make a family from scratch. He was a horrible person, and he deserved to die, but if he died, it would just make it harder on Marinette. "I... would... never."

"Then you'll hold off on taking your life until we can find out if I'm pregnant?"

He nodded.

"Promise?"

"Promise."

* * *

_Negative. _Marinette never would have thought she'd be so distraught to see a negative pregnancy test while still in school. She'd discovered no alternative way to distract Adrien from his woes. If she had, she might be relieved to have stalled without extra consequence, as it was, she could only think of bluffing him. Maybe she could tell him she was pregnant so that he would have no more reservations about screwing her and get him to knock her up for real as soon as possible. Goodness knows that was better than the alternative. Once she got his immediate attention off of suicide, then she could focus on bettering his mental health.

* * *

"Marinette, can we have a word."

"Sure, Maman, what is it?" Marinette was immediately curious, her mother sounded more stern than usual.

"This is hard for me to ask you, but I need an honest answer. Have you become sexually intimate?"

"Yes," she quietly admitted. She didn't like lying to her parents unless absolutely necessary, and she had the feeling this was leading to something.

"I had the feeling," Sabine sighed, "I hoped I was wrong. Sweetheart, I think you're pregnant."

"Really?" Marinette asked, her eyes taking on a sudden glint, "but I just had my period."

"Then I guess you're not."

"Oh... Why did you think I was?"

"You were _acting _pregnant. Just now, you seemed hopeful when I mentioned the possibility. If you've been considering it, that could be responsible for the behavior I mistook for the real thing, but tell me, why are you considering it now?"

Marinette broke down and told her mother everything that was plaguing her, still omitting the part about herself and Adrien owning miraculouses. Just past the part about catching Adrien's suicide attempt, Sabine called for Tom and asked Marinette to repeat from the beginning. In the end she confessed that for nearly a month she'd been telling Adrien she was pregnant with his baby, but that she'd as of yet been unable to put her money where her mouth was.

"Have you reached out to a medical professional?"

"I've looked into it. There's no way he's going to voluntarily get help, and involuntary admission requires a certificate from a doctor. He won't go to the doctor, I tried," she cried so hard she hiccuped "not even to look at his arm. He's afraid they would know what he tried to do. Well, he's probably not wrong. His emancipation just went through too, he's legal an adult now, so services for minors are out of the question too."

"And you're really sure there's no other way to stop him?"

"If there is I'd like to know. Nothing I can think of works."

"We'll help you think this through," Sabine promised. "For now I'd like you to run to the store. Pick up some figs, salmon, and yams."

"Sabine!" Tom exclaimed, "you aren't actually encouraging her are you? Those are all recommended for reproductive health!"

"I'm not condoning her behavior," Sabine assured him. "Foods alone won't get her pregnant, but if she's even considering it I want her to be as healthy as she can be."

Marinette hurriedly slipped away, she felt awkward causing even the slightest contention between her parents. By the time she returned she was relieved to find they had reached some kind of agreement.

* * *

"This is the kind of food I ate when your father and I were ready to have a baby," Sabine explained. "I'm not going to argue with you, but I want you to think about this very carefully. There might be a reason you haven't conceived yet, you're being given a chance to change your mind. Once you get pregnant there's no more opportunity to go back. If you really are serious you need to take care of yourself even better than you already do."

"I am serious," Marinette promised. "I just can't imagine life without him. Having his baby is a lot less scary than losing him."

"How recent was the period you just had?"

Marinette told them.

"Okay, I don't want you to let him touch you at all this next week. Salmon is supposed to be good for both genders, so why don't you bring him some leftovers? If you think you can do it without making him suspicious, try getting him a snack mix with pumpkin seed and Brazil nut. Oh, and make sure he stays hydrated. Tell him that if he doesn't cum at all during this next week you'll make sure it's worth it. And, most importantly, consider this very carefully. Then, only if you're completely certain, you can spend the night with him at the end of the week. If you decide to do it, get him to cum a little right away to stimulate your womb. After that, keep him back from orgasm as long as possible so he can build up a big load. When he does cum, try to synchronize your own orgasm with his. Prop your hips up and rest until it doesn't feel runny anymore."

"Thank you," Marinette knew how emotionally difficult it must be for her parents to go along with this. Thank goodness they understood how important Adrien was to her. They had tried to discourage her, but nonetheless advised her on how to carry it out if that was what she was determined to do. As she went up to her room she lingered just outside the room long enough to hear her father say,

"She's acting like a devoted wife, he had better marry her for all this."

* * *

_Positive. _

She could have cried with relief. Adrien had sworn up and down that he wouldn't leave her to raise a baby by herself. She believed him, she had never caught him in a lie. The same couldn't be said for herself. The father of her child believed she was an entire month farther along than she really was. That lie would be bound to catch up with her some day. Eight months from now he'd be worrying why she was so overdue, and by the time she delivered, he might realize that a pregnancy of that length with both mother and child healthy was impossible. Best case scenario, he would have regained his will to live by that point and would understand why she had to deceive him.

* * *

"Adrien," Marinette told him over the phone. "Get over to the hospital now, my water's broke."

"What?! But this is only the eighth month! The books said a first pregnancy could go as long as ten!"

_'It's actually still the seventh,' _Marinette didn't dare correct him. She was having a premature baby. She'd been hoping for a way to hide her deception from Adrien, but this was not it. She couldn't imagine how he would react if she lost the baby. She was proud of him, he'd done so well pulling himself back together for his child's sake, all that progress threatened to come tumbling down if the child died. She needed to stay calm, a baby born at seven months had pretty good chances of survival, but also an increased chance of birth defects. Did Adrien have the mental fortitude to endure if their baby turned out to be disabled?

* * *

"We have good news and bad news," the doctor informed. "The good news is your baby is going to live, the bad news is he's blind.

Marinette took in a sharp breath. At this point she felt she'd been through worse. She could handle raising a blind child, now her only worry was how Adrien would react.

sensing her nerves but perhaps not where they were coming Adrien grabbed her hand, "Hey, it's okay, we can work with this."

"You really think so?" Marinette asked.

"Absolutely, there was a time when there was no more light in my eyes, but you and our child brought it back. Just hold on, it's my turn to be the light in someone else's eyes."


	19. Corporate Contract

A/n - Based on a prompt by redsexyrebelle, Marinette is one of many employees working for Gabriel Agreste.

* * *

"Have you heard? The boss is back at work today."

"Already? I was hoping he'd be convinced to take more time off. Work is so much easier when his son is in charge."

Marinette heard the gossip of her coworkers as she headed in to her desk. Her boss, Gabriel Agreste, had been involved in a traffic accident the week before. Reportedly, he had suffered a bad shoulder sprain, which had kept him out of the office for most of a week. Everyone had been worrying about him while he was out, but now that he was back on his feet and issuing orders, many were already starting to gripe again.

At her desk, she found a sticky note stuck to the screen of her computer. _'Marinette, to my office, immediately'_. She snatched her portfolio out of its drawer and headed straight for management. She wasn't afraid of him, as so many were. Here boss appeared to like her, and rarely had a stern word for her ears. This was probably about the project she had turned in while he was out. His son, Adrien, had reviewed it in his place, but Gabriel likely wanted to give input for himself now that he was able. She knocked twice and entered the room. The first thing she noticed was that Adrien was standing next to his father's desk, his hands crossed, staring at the floor. Such a quiet demeanor wasn't usual for the chipper young man, she wondered if his father had just told him off. She hoped it wasn't on account of her. She'd had a crush on the boss' son nearly as long as she'd worked for them, and she would feel awful if she had contributed to him getting in trouble.

"Sit down," Gabriel told her. She obeyed. "I've had some time to think while I was out," he continued. "I was lucky. If I'd been sitting just a bit to the side of where I was, I might not have escaped with my life. I've realized I may have to consider a time where Adrien will have to take over my estate - including this company. I called you here today because I want to make sure..." he paused and stared down Marinette, "that he will have the right people he needs to support him."

"Me?"

"You do not have to agree to anything, but know that out of all the available women here, Adrien specifically requested you. If you do decide to take on additional responsibilities, you will be promoted. Your new position will be directly under Adrien." Gabriel pushed a fresh job contract across the table.

Marinette immediately picked up a pen, she expected she would be signing it just as soon as she glanced through. The front side looked normal, it gave her the ability to order around her current peers. It wasn't until she red the flip side that a shiver went down her spine. _'produce an heir'. _It was then that she realized Adrien was no longer staring at the floor, his eyes bore into her, trying to gage her reaction.

"Father, may I have a word alone with Marinette?"

"Go ahead."

"Marinette, will you come with me to my office?"

Marinette followed Adrien to his office next door. On the way over, she imagined what it would be like to 'produce his heir'. As much as she was attracted to him, the offer was tempting. Adrien was a gentle man, she'd daydreamed before that he would be a good father. She wanted to be loved by him, but maybe she was. Gabriel had said that Adrien specifically requested her, after all.

"Shut the door behind you," Adrien ordered her. As soon as she complied he turned to face her, bouncing nervously on the balls of his feet. "You've probably realized by now... but... my father wants me to have a kid. He wants to oversee the process to be sure that I" Adrien looked down his nose and in an officious voice said, " 'select a woman of quality for the job'. In his normal voice he continued, "we don't always agree what a 'quality woman' is, but we both think pretty highly of you. So, what I'm asking you is an enormous favor, to help me keep the peace with my dad."

"You want me," she had to be sure she understood his intentions correctly, "to have a baby with you?"

"It's a lot to ask of you, I know. If you can help me, I'll forever be grateful to you! Otherwise my father's just going to set me up with someone else, and I don't think I could stand to know who that would be. If there's anything I could do to make you comfortable... we could keep it fully professional if you want, or, on the contrary, I could try to make it romantic -"

"I'll do it."

"Or, if you'd rather avoid a sexual encounter with me, there's artificial -"

"Adrien, I said I'll do it," Marinette said a little louder. The force of her voice brought his eyes to meet hers, causing them both to blush.

"You will? Are you sure? I didn't pressure you did I?"

"Adrien, I, I want to do this."

* * *

Gabriel looked on approvingly as Marinette signed the contract. "I take it you two were discussing how you would go about doing this when you were out of the room? You may have a little time to adjust your plans, but I want your first attempt to be no later than two months from now. Is that clear? Marinette, you may return to your desk for now. Arrangements for your own office will be made shortly."

* * *

"Hey!" Adrien greeted Marinette in the lunch room, jumping up to sit on the table, next to where she was eating.

"Would you get down from there?" she swatted at his arm, "what if your father saw you doing that?"

"Whoa! Where'd that bit of sass come from? Hormonal already and you're not even pregnant yet! Must be psychological. Speaking of which, how do you want to begin?"

"Already?"

"Well," he put a hand to the back of his neck, "it's still too soon to start _actively, _but I thought that maybe we should talk out our plan, in case we want to use most of the two months to prepare in some way. I want you to be comfortable, so you have to tell me if you want to sleep with me or if you'd rather have IVF."

"Adrien, am I attractive to you?"

"Why are you asking that now? It doesn't change -"

"I've agreed to have your baby, I think I deserve to know. Why did you pick me? Are you asking me for a favor as a friend, or, putting aside the talk of babies for a minute, would you want to have sex with me?"

"Don't you know? Marinette, I'm pretty sure any guy - or any guy who's at least somewhat into girls - would be interested in a girl like you."

"Do you really think so? Then, I want to be your girlfriend - just until the baby is born, then we can figure out what to do from there. It's _okay _if it doesn't work out, but I want to try to make it romantic. I don't know how else I could explain it to my family, or when they're older, to our kid. I'd prefer if it all, the emotions too, could feel natural. Is that okay with you?"

Adrien leaned over and planted a kiss on top of her head, "as you wish, Princess."

* * *

"Do you want to come in?" Adrien had walked Marinette home after their third date. Now she turned to face him in her doorway. They were already good friends before the recent development, and he'd been inside her apartment before, but this invitation was different. He could tell she felt so too, the way she gnawed on her lip after asking him.

"Sure," he came inside, "I have a while before I have to leave. What do you have in mind?"

"That depends, but you should know I've been tracking my cycle, and I'm ovulating."

There was only one reason she would be telling him that. "Are you ready? We can't put it off too long, but we do have until next month."

"How about we feel it out and see how it goes? I - actually don't know if I have the nerves to follow through with this. If either one of us feels too uncomfortable with this, we can stop. Next month we don't have that luxury."

"Okay, stop me if this goes too far." He kissed her, and somewhere in that kiss, a switch flipped in each of their brains. Instincts took over and unease melted. They knew she was getting pregnant that night.

"Follow me," she lead him into her bedroom.

"Do you want to prop yourself up?" he asked her.

"Mmm," she faltered, "that's supposed to be good for conception, isn't it? I suppose I should." She gathered up pillows and rolled up blankets, enough to keep her hips raised off the bed, then stepped back to inspect her work. "Um, would it be more sexy for you if I undress in front of you, or do you want to wait outside while I arrange myself on the bed?"

Adrien's straining member told him it wanted the quickest route to gratification, and under these circumstances, it seemed morally acceptable to think with his penis. "Let's not mess around," he told her, "I want you naked now."

* * *

"I'm close," he told her, "are you ready?"

"Hold on, take it out a second." The moment he withdrew she felt empty, but knew that in a moment she would be filled up more than ever. She pulled her knees up to her chest and spread her thighs apart with her hands. It wasn't exactly comfortable, which was why she'd saved this position for last minute. "Okay, do it."

He plunged back into her, reaching farther than he'd been able to before. His penis pulsed, and he felt a tremor from her in response. He looked into her eyes, and she nodded. Her admission earlier, that she didn't know if she could go through with it, had scared him a little, but he could see she was past that. She was confident and ready to be a mother. Filled with warm emotions and his climax, he exploded into her.

* * *

"You're two months are almost up, Adrien," Gabriel noted, "are you and Marinette ready to take the next step?"

"Uh..." Adrien laughed nervously.

"Adrien. You are planning on doing it aren't you?"

"We're doing it," Adrien confirmed. "The thing is, we got a little excited last month and we..."

"Is it already done?" Gabriel asked, sounding slightly amused.

"Maybe," Adrien squeaked, his face turning bright pink. "She bled a little when her period was due, but she said it was way lighter than normal. She tried two different brands of home pregnancy test and," he sighed, "got one negative and one positive. She has a doctor's appointment later this week."

"Good," Gabriel nodded, "update me as soon as you know." It sounded to him like Marinette probably was pregnant. He was no expert, but he'd learned back when his wife was pregnant with Adrien that a woman's body could react in a variety of strange ways the first time she carried a child. He hoped it was true, not only because he wanted a grandchild, but because the symptoms Adrien described would be far more worrisome if they couldn't be attributed to pregnancy.

* * *

"Do you think they'll be angry?" Adrien asked. "We haven't been dating all that long, might they think it's too soon for us to have a child?"

"Well, at least we didn't meet each other just two months ago. They know we were already close even before we officially started dating." Marinette briefly pondered whether she would like to reveal her secret to him, then decided that with as far as their relationship had progressed, it would be silly to keep her feelings hidden any longer. "They knew about my feelings for you and they approved of you as well. They were so excited when I told them we were together!"

A warm glow spread in Adrien's heart. A part of him had known all along that Marinette loved him. That's why he'd felt comfortable asking her to have a family with him. Then when he asked her she'd affirmed that she wanted to do it with him, but she hadn't really said why she wanted it. Now that she had verbally mentioned having feelings for him, a rush of confidence surged through him. "Come on then, if they're glad we're together, your family should be extra glad about something that's going to keep us together."

Marinette wondered if Adrien realized what he'd said. Their baby was going to keep them together? That's what she'd been daring to hope all along!

* * *

"Congratulations, Mrs. Agreste," the nurse transferred the newborn into Marinette's arms. Marinette kissed the baby's head. Her contract was over, but her life was changed forever. She and Adrien had married a few months prior. When her third trimester had rolled around the end of their obligations to each other were in sight, but they didn't want it to be so. They'd sought a more final way to lay claim to each other. Together, they would shape their baby into a fine human being, and the heir of a fashion empire. "Hello little one, you have no idea how important you are."


End file.
